Join Abundant Intelligences for Epistemological Foundations #08. This session will focus on policy and governance of AI, addressing how decision-making structures, regulatory frameworks, and governance models shape the development and deployment of AI technologies. Our experienced panelists will consider how their work contributes to uncovering and shaping the conditions under which AI operates.
In this discussion, we will consider how Indigenous epistemologies can inform AI governance, moving beyond dominant paradigms to embrace relational, land-based, and community-centered approaches. What does it mean to govern AI in ways that uphold Indigenous sovereignty, data governance, and self-determination? How can policy frameworks integrate principles of relational accountability, respect for more-than-human intelligence, and collective consent?
The Epistemological Foundations Conversations feature members of the Abundant Intelligences research team sharing how the knowledge frameworks in their field are constructed, validated, and employed. This session will provide an opportunity to dive deeper into what it means to bring together Data Sovereignty and AI.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Fenwick McKelvey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. He studies digital politics and policy, appearing frequently as an expert commentator in the media and intervening in media regulatory hearings. He is the author of Internet Daemons (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), winner of the 2019 Gertrude J. Robinson Book Award. He is a member of the Educational Review Committee of the Walrus Magazine.
Kamuela Enos is the director of the Office of Indigenous Innovation at the University of Hawai’i. Enos is a mixed-race Native Hawaiian, cis male, raised in the community of Wai’anae within the context of the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s and 1980s—an Indigenous rights movement that continues today. He holds degrees in Hawaiian studies and urban and regional planning from the University of Hawai’i.
Maroussia Lévesque is a CIGI senior fellow, a doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School, an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Research Center, and a member of the Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence working group. Building on previous work on artificial intelligence (AI) and human rights at Global Affairs Canada, she currently researches AI governance.
She previously worked for Quebec’s public inquiry commission on electronic surveillance and clerked for the Chief Justice at the Quebec Court of Appeal, and holds degrees from Harvard, McGill and Concordia University.
Éliane Ubalijoro, PhD is Chief Executive Officer of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and Director General of ICRAF. An accomplished leader with a background in agriculture and molecular genetics, she serves on several boards and has been recognized for outstanding contributions to innovation, gender equity and sustainable prosperity creation.
Dr Ubalijoro has been a Professor of Practice for public-private sector partnerships at McGill University since 2008. From 2021 to March 2023, she was the Executive Director of Sustainability in the Digital Age and the Canada Hub Director for Future Earth. She is a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council and Presidential Advisory Council, the Impact Advisory Board of the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet, the Science for Africa Foundation, the Capitals Coalition Supervisory Board, the External Advisory Committee to the Chief Statistician of Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada on Canada’s first Census of Environment, Digital Green and Genome Canada, among others. She is also a fellow of the International Science Council.
Prior to returning to academia, she was a scientific director in a Montreal-based biotechnology company in charge of molecular diagnostic and bioinformatics discovery programs. This work led Dr Ubalijoro to undertake consulting work in Haiti and in Africa related to sustainable climate-resilient economic growth.
🗓: June 4, 2025
🕒: 5:30- 7 PM
📍: Speculative Life Room EV 10.625
🔗 : Zoom link
🎟️ If you’re planning to attend this event in-person, please make sure you RSVP by emailing: abint-activities@concordia.ca