Deakin Webinar: On the Shoulders of Giants - Data sovereignty and digital self-determination

Tue 26 May 2026 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm AEST

Online

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Universities have always been data institutions. What is new is the speed, scale, and authority with which data and AI systems now shape how students are categorised, supported, excluded, predicted, and governed.

In this session, Distinguished Professor Maggie Walter and Dr Bret Stephenson come together to examine what is at stake as higher education moves deeper into data driven decision making. Drawing on First Nations scholarship, Indigenous Data Sovereignty and disability informed work on equity, analytics, and inclusion, they invite us to look critically at how data is produced, interpreted, and used within institutions.

Rather than focusing on AI as a novel disruption, this conversation situates contemporary technologies within much longer histories of classification, measurement, and control — and alongside a long standing drive for self determination, visibility, and justice. Maggie and Bret will explore how ideas of “helping”, “objectivity”, and “evidence” can obscure power, reproduce harm, or foreclose alternative ways of knowing and governing — particularly for Indigenous peoples, disabled people, and other students who have experience of structural inequality.

This discussion is for educators, institutional leaders, researchers, and others grappling with the practical and ethical challenges of data and AI in universities.

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