A Nigerian-born professor, Chidi Oguamanam, has been appointed as the Research Chair in Sustainable Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance in the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada.
In his role, Oguamanam will “advance just societies through the equitable participation of the world’s Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in global knowledge production and in the resulting benefits,” the announcement on the school’s website revealed.
The post of University Research Chairs is awarded to top researchers in the institution in recognition of their outstanding and continuous accomplishments in research.
According to the institution, Oguamanam has positioned himself as a leading voice in the effort to “stop the harmful appropriation Indigenous knowledge, and replace decades-old practices with new, sustainable systems that can equitably bring Indigenous knowledge to the world.”
The announcement dated August 16, 2022 partly read, “Under the auspices of this new Chair, Professor Oguamanam’s goal is to advance just societies through the equitable participation of the world’s Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in global knowledge production and in the resulting benefits.
“Above all, he seeks an answer to the following question: How can global knowledge governance achieve equity for IPLCs and their knowledge production?
“To answer this question, Professor Oguamanam will look at global knowledge governance across the multiple but interrelated sites of sustainability, agriculture, food security, environment, biodiversity conservation, climate change, health, medicines, arts, and other epistemic traditions in which the diverse forms of informal knowledge production practices of the world’s IPLCs intersect with formal science and technology-driven innovation.
“While transformations in science and technology can create new challenges surrounding the appropriation of the knowledge of IPLCs, they also have the capacity to empower Indigenous knowledge custodians to equitably participate and benefit in the emergent global knowledge economy.
“Professor Oguamanam’s URC research will make an original contribution to repositioning Indigenous knowledge custodians from old forms of knowledge governance to new models that are more well suited to the technological advancements of the 21st Century.”
