This workshop explores what it would mean to design decolonial technologies at a moment when artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how knowledge is produced, circulated, and valued.
The opening lecture will trace a short history of AI, from early expert systems to current large language models, and examine how these systems are built on deeply uneven infrastructures: training data that overwhelmingly represent the Global North, opaque pipelines of extraction from archives and the web, and technical choices that can erase or misrepresent Indigenous and marginalised voices. It will unpack concrete examples of bias and harm in generative AI, and connect them to longer histories of colonial knowledge-making and control.
The second part of the session invites participants into a guided reflection and practical exercise on “designing otherwise.” Working in small groups, attendees will map out one real or imagined technology such as an app, a dataset, a model, or a workflow, and systematically re‑think it through decolonial lenses: whose knowledge is included or excluded, who controls data and infrastructure, what communities benefit or bear risks, and what forms of accountability and reciprocity are built in. Drawing on experiences from AI work with Latin American and Indigenous archives, the workshop will offer prompts and simple frameworks that participants can take back to their own projects, with the aim of turning critical awareness of AI’s problems into concrete principles for building more just, situated, and community‑anchored technologies.
A historical archaeologist, Patricia Murrieta-Flores is a Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence at Tecnológico de Monterrey in México, and a Chair Professor at the History Department at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. She is an international reference in the application of artificial intelligence for the analysis of colonial history and cultural heritage. She has led multiple high-impact research projects funded by organizations such as the ESRC, AHRC, NEH, CONACyT, and Schmidt Sciences, consolidating more than 20 international grants. She is a member of the Royal Historical Society and has held global leadership positions, including Secretary of the Executive Board of ADHO. Her work has been recognized with international awards and more than 70 publications in high-impact scientific journals. In addition, she advises top-tier institutions such as multiple international research councils, the Science Museum in London, and major research infrastructures across Europe.
This event is brought to you by the UVA Library DH Center, in co-sponsorship with the Institute for the Arts & Humanities and Global Spanish. It is free and open to all, but registration is required to reserve your seat.