Junior Fellow Lecture Series November 18

The Junior Fellow Lecture Series showcases the exceptional breadth of scholarship within the Massey community. Junior Fellows present their research around a shared theme, bringing disciplines—from the hard sciences to the humanities—into conversation.

Automate This! Care and Connection in an Age of Disruption

Description:

Care and human connection are essential to sustaining people, relationships, communities, and the worlds we inhabit. This question is particularly salient at a time when activities and qualities once considered quintessentially human are increasingly being brought within the reach of non-human technologies. And yet, much of the work of care remains overlooked or undervalued.

This JFLS explores the many forms that care can take — from clinical and environmental care to relational, artistic, and self-care — and asks what they make possible. How does care help us navigate crisis, change, and isolation? What happens when the logics of care come into tension with those of efficiency, autonomy, and individualism? And what does caring for one another, our communities, and our environment look like across the past, present, and future?

We welcome you to attend formal dinner at Massey College in advance of this event. Registration Here.

This event will be moderated by Senior Fellow Dr. Edith Hillan. Edith Hillan, RN, PhD, FAAN, is a Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, where she previously served as Associate Dean and University Vice-Provost.

With presentations from…

Julia St Louis is a PhD Candidate in the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and a registered nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit at the Hospital for Sick Children. Her research is aimed at improving deceased organ donation care for infants, children, and their families.

Presentation: Predicted time to death after withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies is an important metric for identifying organ donors. This talk considers the utility of accurate prediction for high-quality organ donation and end-of-life care for children who are dying in intensive care units. Do accurate predictions actually help us to provide better care, or are there limits to the value of prediction at the end of life?

Abhishek Moturu is a 6th-year PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Toronto whose research at the Vector Institute focuses on learning from imperfect data. He works on AI-assisted pediatric cancer surveillance at SickKids and facial pain assessment in older adults with dementia at UHN’s KITE Research Institute. He is Co-Chair of the AI and Human Societies Group at Massey College, Education Trainee Co-Lead at T-CAIREM, and a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Information.

Presentation: Abhishek will present his research on using AI to detect pain from facial expressions in older adults with dementia, who may have difficulty communicating. He will discuss how he developed and evaluated these systems, including his experience bringing this technology into long-term care homes in Regina and Saskatoon.

Maggie Chang is a PhD student specializing in environmental justice, researching the impacts of migration histories, youth, and food systems. She is the Co-founder of Uptown Climate Conversations.

Presentation: This research comes from Maggie s master s thesis, and explores the impacts of migration histories on (first and second generation migration) on racialized youth s environmental initiatives.

James Lautens is a second-year Master of Public Policy student at the Munk School of Global Affairs Public Policy. His research interests include exploring the feasibility of universal basic income in society, exploring the role of private and public sector collaboration in policy creation, and understanding how defence policy shapes civil society.

Presentation: James is presenting his research on the institutional constraints exacerbating the family doctor shortage in Ontario and what other jurisdictions are doing to address their own family doctor crises.”

Rayan Awad Alim s research in computer science explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and social justice, with a focus on the ethical design and governance of technologies used in high-stakes public institutions. Her work on climate mobility and migration forms part of a broader interest in how emerging technologies shape human experiences, decision-making, and relationships with the institutions that govern everyday life.

Presentation: Can a border care? I’ll be presenting on how AI and automation are reshaping migration governance, particularly in the context of climate displacement, and ask whether systems designed to classify and process people can adequately recognise human vulnerability, exercise judgement, and fulfil their responsibility to protect.