Richard Canevez

Biography

My doctorate is in information sciences and technology from Penn State University, where I studied Indigenous education and telecommunications as a form of empowerment. Prior to my graduate studies, I was a tech entrepreneur, artificial intelligence researcher, and software engineer during which I co-founded a tech startup (SkyPhrase, Inc.) that was eventually purchased by Yahoo! Inc. I have an undergraduate degree in Philosophy with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

Prior to coming to Michigan Tech University, I was a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii where I explored the technologization of peace activism and nonviolence, and the use of digital spaces as a space of resistance for pro-Ukrainian cyber-activists against Russia's 2022 escalation of the war against Ukraine. My research focuses on activism and resistance both in terms of acts of democratic dissent and armed resistance against inter-state aggression, and seeks to draw parallels between the two.