As part of the “AI & Democracy” webinar series sponsored by the Chair in AI & Democracy at the Florence School of Transnational Governance (European University Institute), this session explores how feminist and decolonial perspectives can reframe the relationship between AI and knowledge production.
Can AI help unsettle dominant technological imaginaries and amplify marginalized voices? What are the risks of reinforcing extractive logics, and how might we craft alternative, plural futures with AI? How can we work with people on the ground, including indigenous groups in the Amazon Forest, in a way that fosters epistemic justice and self-determination?
Bringing applied insights and critical reflection, this conversation bridges theory and practice to consider how AI intersects decolonial and feminist interventions in the global knowledge economy.
Paula Helm is an Assistant Professor specializing in Empirical Ethics, with a background in Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Research. With the mission to move AI ethics from the PR to the development level, her interdisciplinary work spans STS, Media Studies, and Critical Data Science. She co-leads the Empirical Ethics Research Group at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Studies and coordinates a Media Studies MA program on Cultural Data & AI. Paula serves on the UvA Ethics Committee, is co-PI of the HAVA Lab, an IAS Fellow and a member of the Certain-AI Network. Email: p.m.helm@uva.nl
Beatrice Bonami is a Brazilian author, researcher, and STS scholar focusing on AI decoloniality, materiality, and data Southern scarcity. She has a Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and the University College London (UK). In the past few years (2021-2024), she has conducted ethnographic field research in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest (UvA-GDC), and in the African North Sahara and Copper Belt (DAAD). She is now a Post-Doc at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) working on the project Planetary Values of AI (UKRI), having previously been associated with the Universität Tübingen (Germany) and the Universiteit van Amsterdam (Netherlands).
Stefania Milan collaborates with the Chair in AI & Democracy at the Florence School of Transnational Governance (European University Institute). She is Professor of Critical Data Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (Harvard University).
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