Ai, Digital Humanities and information verification decolonial scholarship…
Increasing Access to Digital Research Infrastructure for Black Students at the University of Lethbridge
There is a proverb in my language (Igbo) that says, onye ajụjụ adịghị efu ụzọ — “the one who asks questions never loses their way.” It is in this spirit of inquiry and commitment to opening pathways that I designed and led a project, supported by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, to increase access to Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) among Black graduate students at the University of Lethbridge.
The work began with a question: Why do so many Black students remain on the margins of Canada’s rapidly expanding digital research landscape? And what would it take to shift that both symbolically and structurally?
So, we had workshops where we brought together more than sixty graduate students in a series of training sessions on Research Data Management (RDM) and also discussed topics like metadata and data ethics of Tri-Agency compliance and preservation strategies. And we also spoke of voice, of course. Of whose research gets resourced, who gets archived, who gets forgotten. I also met with students one-on-one on several occasions, listening closely to their disciplines, their questions, and their dreams and helped them identify the right digital tools, data repositories, and strategies that would help them complete their research, make it accessible and own it.
Prior to this project, over 90% of the students had never heard of Digital Research Alliance of Canada or the DRI tools before. Some of them who are working with big data that require higher computing power had never heard or been told that their work deserved to exist in high-performance computing environments, or that their data — often shaped by community, culture, and care — could sit alongside datasets from other labs and think tanks. So I taught them how to navigate the permissions and join other scholars across the country leveraging these free resources.
This work continues. But already, I have seen what becomes possible when Black students are given the tools and trust to think big, to think locally, and to know that their ways of knowing also belong in the architecture of Canadian academia.
As we say back home, ọkwa chi ka mma — the future can be brighter, but only if we build it together.
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About Me
My name is Frank Onuh — nocturnal, left-handed, left-legged, and deeply committed to the politics of knowledge and justice and artificial intelligence. I come from a place where storytelling is both survival and strategy. Long before I had the language of “information disorder” or “artificial intelligence,” I was already asking the kinds of questions that keep systems honest, and people seen. Now, as a doctoral researcher at the University of Lethbridge, I work at the intersection of information verification, AI, and inclusive technology systems. How often have you thought about or asked the question: who is being left out, and why? I think about this too and working to keep providing practical solutions in this space.
I am part of the Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (CSPT) PhD program, an interdisciplinary space that allows me to thread together theory, technology, and lived experience. My current research focuses on decolonizing information verification in African contexts, building hybrid epistemic models that challenge Eurocentric truth while honouring autochthonous ways of knowing. This work has taken me into conversations around AI ethics, bias, explainability, prompt engineering, and how we can build decolonial AI systems that actually listen and incorporate diverse views and not just computer.
In the past 12 months alone (March 2024-March 2025), I’ve given over thirty-two talks across the world, engaging scholars, engineers, media professionals, educators, and activists on how digital tools can either amplify or erase. I’m also a recipient of the EDIA pilot program funded by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, where I continue to advocate for equity-driven approaches to infrastructure and innovation.
Outside research, I find joy in self-conversations that stretch late into the night. I also enjoy playing football, table tennis, and basketball. I am married to a very beautiful and adorable woman — Osahon — and we are raising a son whose name says everything: Chiziterem, which means sent by God. My wife (who is a UIUX designer and a singer) also does music together.
For speaking engagements, workshops, or collaborative projects, reach out if you’re interested in the following areas of specialty:
» Decolonizing information verification practices in African contexts
» Critical perspectives on misinformation, disinformation, and information disorder
» Inclusive and decolonial AI design and implementation
» Explainable and ethically grounded AI systems
» Prompt engineering and responsible AI deployment
» AI applications in education, governance, and public interest technology
» Digital skills training for youth, early-career professionals, and underrepresented communities
» Equitable and inclusive technology ecosystems in the Global South
» Community-driven digital research infrastructure (DRI) initiatives
» Cross-sector collaboration for socially responsible tech development
If any of these resonate with your work — or if something here made you pause and think — feel free to reach out via [email protected]. I’m always open to conversations that carry ideas forward.