Gabi Schaffzin is an artist, educator, and researcher based in Toronto. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at York University's School of Arts, Media, Performance, and Design. He holds a PhD in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the University of California San Diego, an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design's Dynamic Media Institute, and a BS in Business Administration from Babson College in Wellesley. His work has been on display in galleries, museums, and public spaces in San Diego, Toronto, Philadelphia, Madison, and Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has had the privilege of speaking at conferences around the country, as well as internationally

His dissertation project combined design history, disability studies, and a history of computing to trace the history of designed pain scales in the United States throughout the 20th century. He is a 2018–19 recipient of the Andrew V. and Florence W. White Dissertation Scholarship from the UC Humanities Research Institute. Most recently, he was awarded an Insight Development Grant by the Canadian Social Science & Humanities Research Council for his project, “Documenting the epistemological trajectory of neurological pain research.”