From understanding the role of artificial intelligence in electoral politics to reshaping how we think about disinformation in Canada, Dr. Elizabeth Dubois is a leader looking for ways to create an impact in the real world. Her research examines political uses of digital media and the impact of technology on our political environment, which she mobilizes to support evidence-based policy making and minimize online harms.
Dr. Dubois runs the Pol Comm Tech Lab, a multi-disciplinary research group focused on exploring the intersections of politics, communication, and technology. For six seasons she has hosted the Wonks and War Rooms podcast, where she brings political communication theory out of the classroom by bringing in experts from around the world to help make sense of how political communication and technology interact at the ground level.
A recent recipient of University of Ottawa Knowledge Mobilization Excellence Award, she co-led the Digital Ecosystem Research Challenge, bringing together 18 research teams to examine uses of digital media in the 2019 Federal Election in Canada. The project has been used as a model for election research internationally, and the resulting open-access report is now used in classrooms and policy discussions across Canada and serves as a benchmark for evaluating Canada’s media landscape and the state of disinformation. Recently she won a Trans-Atlantic Partnership Grant where she and her international collaborators will examine how to create more trustworthy approaches to digital political communication.
Thanks to her public-facing work, Dr. Dubois regularly engages with media to support news coverage of threats to election integrity, raise awareness of key issues among the public and policymakers, and increase media and civic literacy. She has also been asked to speak to Chief Electoral Officers from across Canada about the political uses of AI, has appeared as an expert witness to multiple Parliamentary committees, and presented to the heads of electoral management bodies at meetings held by the Organization of American States.
In addition to holding the University Research Chair in Politics, Communication and Technology at uOttawa, Dr. Dubois is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication in the Faculty of Arts and a Faculty member at Centre for Law Technology and Society. She is also a Faculty Associate and former Fellow of the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard University, and an Affiliate at the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at University of North Carolina.
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) is recognized as the pre-eminent body of independent scholars, researchers and creative people in Canada. The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists is Canada’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership. The Members of the College are Canadians and Permanent Residents who, are less than fifteen years from the date of PhD or disciplinary equivalent and who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishment.
Dr. Dubois will be formally inducted at the Royal Society of Canada’s Celebration of Excellence this fall.
Congratulations to Dr. Dubois on this incredible achievement!