Alissa Centivany is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. working on technology policy, law, and ethics. She holds a PhD in Information and a JD specializing in intellectual property and technology law. Prior to joining FIMS, Dr. Centivany was a Microsoft Research Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University
of California-Berkeley School of Law, and a researcher at the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy, University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Alissa Centivany currently teaches the following graduate-level courses: "Information Ethics" [FIMS 9137], "Information and Media Policy for Social Justice" [FIMS 9336], and “Managing and Working in
Information Organizations” [MLIS 9005]. Dr. Centivany regularly supervises graduate students' research on varied topics including: cybersecurity, repair, dark patterns, ethical AI, indigenous archives, scholarly communications and open access, ed tech, revenge porn, and more.
Dr. Centivany's primary areas of inquiry include: breakdown, repair, and the right to repair movement; scholarly communications, open access, and open source technologies; and participatory policymaking. Dr. Centivany is currently primary investigator for two SSHRC-funded projects on repair: "Copyright, computerization, and the Right to Repair" (IDG), and "Breakdown and Repair in Gaza's Health Care Sector" (NFRF). In 2023, she provided expert testimony before the Canadian House of Commons standing committee on Industry and Technology related to two copyright reform bills: C-244 (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair) and Bill C-294 (interoperability). Her work has been cited by a variety of print, radio, and television media including CBC, Global News, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Cottage Life Magazine, and others. Since 2023, Dr. Centivany also co-directs Tesserae: The Centre for Digital Justice, Community , and Democracy and Western University which she co-founded with her amazing colleagues at FIMS. She is part of a SSHRC-funded team of researchers studying the use of AI to address chronic homelessness (PI: Luke Stark). Dr. Centivany was also co-organizer of the recently-concluded SSHRC-funded "Big Data at the Margins" series which you may
learn more about here: https://bdam.fims.uwo.ca
