Chidi Oguamanam, a full professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, has been awarded the University Research Chair (URC) in Sustainable Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global Knowledge Governance.
University Research Chairs are given to the University of Ottawa’s top researchers in recognition of their outstanding and continuous accomplishments in research as well as the training of students.
It should be noted that this portfolio is coming on the heels of the fact that Professor Chidi has positioned himself as a leading voice in the effort to stop the harmful appropriation of Indigenous knowledge, and replace decades-old practices with new, sustainable systems that can equitably bring Indigenous knowledge to the world.
In view of the development, Oguamanam’s goal is to advance just societies through the equitable participation of the world’s Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in global knowledge production and in the resulting benefits.
Oguamanam seeks to 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.
Experts have it that 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. 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.
It is imperative to note that Oguamanam is a leading scholar in the area of intellectual propriety and Indigenous knowledge. The exceptional interdisciplinarity of his research has allowed him to pursue complex issues that cut across environmental law, biotechnology, IP rights, food security, health law, and ethics. His work has also been widely recognized for its strong theory-to-practice dimensions.
With inspirations from his Indigenous African heritage, Oguamanam is able to link the experiences of African cultural communities with their Indigenous counterparts in Canada and globally and bring a deep understanding of the intricacies embedded in questions that examine local, traditional and Indigenous knowledges in the context of intellectual property, innovation and knowledge governance.
Professor Oguamanam belongs to diverse international research and professional networks committed to building bridges and influencing policies across the south-south and north-south geopolitical spheres. He has diverse interdisciplinary research interests in the areas of global knowledge governance in general, especially as manifested in the dynamics of intellectual property and technology law, with emphasis on biodiversity and biotechnology (including agricultural biotechnology).
He identifies the policy and practical contexts for the exploration of the intersections of knowledge systems, particularly Western science and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, within the broader development discourse and paradigm. He is interested in the global institutional and regime dynamics for negotiating access and distributional challenges in regard to the optimization of benefits of innovation by stakeholders and the role of intellectual property in development.
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