Project Description

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RESEARCH AREAS:

  • Information Policy
  • Technology & IP Law
  • Ethics

CONTACT:

  • Western University
    FIMS & Nursing Bldg, Rm 2050
    London, Ontario, Canada
    N6A 5B9

  • acentiva@uwo.ca

ALISSA CENTIVANY

Assistant Professor,
Faculty of Information & Medis Studies, Western University

Dr. 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. Dr. Centivany co-directs the Starling Centre for Just Technologies & Just Societies. She serves as a core expert in the AI Insights for Policymakers Program (AIPP) convened by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and Mila — Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. She is co-founder of the Canadian Repair Coalition and is an affiliate member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. Dr. Centivany has provided expert testimony before the Canadian House of Commons and Senate on two copyright reform measures (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair & interoperability) that received royal assent in November, 2024. Her research and expertise is regularly cited in a variety of news media including The National, CBC, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Global News, The Agenda, and others. Dr. Centivany’s work is motivated by interdisciplinarity, curiosity, and care. In her spare time, she dabbles in creative pursuits, tends to living things, plays pinball whenever possible, and occasionally (secretly) co-hosts a late-night college radio show.

Dr. Centivany conducts research on technology policy, law, and ethics.  Her primary areas of inquiry include: breakdown, repair, and the right to repair movement; copyright, AI, and sociotechnical transformation; scholarly communications, open access, and open source technologies; and participatory policymaking.  She is the primary investigator for a project entitled “Copyright, Computerization, and the Right to Repair Movement”, funded by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is also a primary investigator for a project entitled “Breakdown and Repair in Gaza’s Health Care Sector” that received a New Frontiers in Research Fund award from Canada’s tri-council agencies in 2023.  Dr. Centivany provided expert testimony before the Canadian House of Commons and Senate on two copyright reform bills: C-244 (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair) and C-294 (interoperability) in 2023 and 2024. These bills received Royal Assent in November, 2024. Dr. Centivany is a frequent contributor to policy consultations on emerging technologies in Canada and elsewhere. As a core expert in the AI Insights for Policymakers Program (AIPP) convened by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute (Mila) she provides guidance to policymakers on questions related to the development, deployment, and social impacts of AI systems. She has also provided guidance to Heritage Canada as part of Mila’s Cultural Data Strategy working group, and is engaged in provincial policy and U.S. policy landscapes as well.

Alissa Centivany, Dorotea Gucciardo, Joanna Redden, “Just Technologies for Just Societies” forthcoming at the 50th Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) conference, Sept. 2025.

Alissa Centivany, “Infrastructure Development and Donation Culture in the Gaza Strip”, in Proceedings of the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T ’24), Oct. 2024.

Alissa Centivany, “Mining, Scraping, Training, Generating: Copyright Implications of Generative AI”, in Proceedings of the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T ’24), Oct. 2024.

Alissa Centivany, “‘You are Not Here’: Coordinating Repair under Occupation”, in Proceedings of the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T ’24), Oct. 2024.

Jasvinder Mann, Alissa Centivany, “Securing Repair”, poster at the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T ’24), Oct. 2024.

Alissa Centivany, testimony on “Bill C-294: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (interoperability)” before the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Commerce, and the Economy, Oct. 2024.

Alissa Centivany, testimony on “Bill C-244: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair)” before the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Commerce, and the Economy, Oct. 2024.

Alissa Centivany, “When all else fails? Exploring hope in times of profound crisis”, joint conference of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), July 2024.

Brittany Melton, Alissa Centivany, “Noises in the Dark: Power, Protest, and Participatory Policymaking in Online Platforms”, International Conference on Social Media & Society, July 2024.

Alissa Centivany, Anthony Rosborough, “A clearer right-to-repair picture emerges in Canada, but uncertainties remain,” Policy Options, Dec. 20, 2023.

Anthony Rosborough, Alissa Centivany, “The empty success of recent amendments to Canada’s right-to-repair bill”, Policy Options on May 1, 2023.

Alissa Centivany, testimony on “Bill C-294: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (interoperability) before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry & Technology, Mar. 2023.

Alissa Centivany, testimony on “Bill C-244: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance, and repair) before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry & Technology, Feb. 2023.

Michelle Kaczmarek, Alissa Centivany, “Repair Imaginaries: envisioning and enacting better relations in imperfect worlds”, panel at Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S ‘22) and presented in Cholula, Mexico.

Alexandra Marcaccio, Alissa Centivany, “Transforming the Scholarly Publishing Lindworm,” in Proceedings of the 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T ’22) and presented in Pittsburgh, PA.

Chad Currier, Alissa Centivany, “Controlled Digital Lending,” in Proceedings of the 84th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T ’21).

Faculty Research Domains

Rotman Institute faculty members are listed below by shared research areas. Visit individual member profiles to learn more.