Cassidy Bereskin – CIBC Scholarship
Email: cassidybereskin@gmail.com
Programme: DPhil, Information, Communication and the Social Sciences, University of Oxford
Biography (IN ENGLISH): Cassidy Bereskin is a DPhil (PhD) researcher and Clarendon Scholar at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the efficacy of platform-based interventions for combatting visual misinformation and harmful deepfakes.
Originally from midtown Toronto, she holds a BA in Political Science from McMaster University, where she graduated as Valedictorian and received the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for highest achievement in scholarship, leadership, and influence. At McMaster, she was exposed to policy-relevant online safety research through the Digital Society Lab and Vox Pop Labs, a high-performance Canadian computing lab led by Dr. Clifton van der Linden.
This foundation led her to the University of Oxford, where she pursued an MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute, graduating with Distinction. Now in her DPhil, in continued collaboration with Vox Pop Labs, Cassidy is conducting survey experiments to inform the development of evidence-based interventions for policymakers and platforms for countering climate and health-related misinformation and build societal resilience to AI-generated content.
Cassidy also founded and directs the Oxford Generative AI Summit (‘OxGen AI Summit’), the UK’s landmark multi-stakeholder convening on generative AI and society. Launched in 2023 by OxGen AI, the Summit brings together 300 senior leaders annually from enterprise, academia, government, media, and civil society to explore the use cases and societal impacts of AI and shape the future of the field.
In addition, Cassidy has worked with the Alan Turing Institute’s Online Safety Team, served as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Governance of AI, and authored the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s Handbook on Disinformation, AI, and Synthetic Media. She is regularly invited to brief policymakers, diplomats, and corporate leaders on emerging risks and interventions for deepfakes and harmful synthetic media.
Cassidy is deeply honoured to be a 2025 CCSF CIBC Scholarship recipient.
