Kimberley Paradis

Email: kimberley.paradis@ed.ac.uk

Research keywords: Community-Based Research Methods in NLP, Queer & Intersectional Design

Bio:

Kimberley holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Ottawa. During her undergraduate studies, she took on various community engagement roles within makerspaces and engineering outreach programs. Following her degree, she pursued research fellowships exploring the societal impacts of technology, contributing to projects on gender-based technology-facilitated violence, Queering cybersecurity, and civil society consultations on AI governance. She also served as the research coordinator for the AI & Society Initiative at the University of Ottawa, where she most recently supported research on the implications of generative AI in areas such as environmental sustainability, food systems, and agriculture.

Outside of academia, Kimberley spent five years working for the Government of Canada. In this role, she used strategic foresight to explore emerging technologies and contributed to research projects addressing privacy and security considerations for Canadian digital services.

Beyond her professional and academic roles, Kimberley is actively involved in grassroots and community organizations, including the Community-Based Research Centre in Vancouver. She has also served as a volunteer with the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, notably chairing a committee on the Research and Innovation Task Force.

PhD research:

Kimberley’s research explores responsible NLP through community-led, intersectional, Queer, and decolonial approaches, with the goal of reimagine data practices, addressing power dynamics, and dismantling dominant structures in AI research. Traditional research frameworks have often marginalized Indigenous, Queer and racialized communities, treating them as data sources without genuine engagement or acknowledgment of their lived experiences, knowledge, and leadership. Her research critiques these extractive models and seeks to adapt community-based methodologies, commonly used in public health and social sciences, to NLP development and governance. Her goal is to co-create pathways for these communities to interrogate, reshape, and contest data practices.

Supervisors: Tara Capel, Lachlan Urquhart