Dr. Teshager (Tesh) W. Dagne is an Associate member at the University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society and an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration and the Ontario Research Chair in Governing Artificial Intelligence at York University.
Dr. Teshager W. Dagne teaches in the Faculty of Graduate Studies Program in Science and Technology Studies and Osgoode Hall Law School. Dr. Dagne received his Doctoral Degree in Law from Dalhousie University鈥檚 Schulich School of Law in 2012, and before joining York University in May 2023, he was a tenured Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law.
With expertise in innovation and knowledge governance, Dr. Dagne specializes in intellectual property law and innovation policy and has authored and co-authored several notable works, including the books (2014) and (2022). Dr. Dagne鈥檚 current research is situated at the intersection of law, technology, and society, with a particular focus on the multi-dimensional governance of artificial intelligence. His scholarship has progressively expanded to address the broader societal, ethical, and legal implications of AI across various domains. These include platform labour, biodiversity, agricultural innovation, neurotechnologies, and data sovereignty, particularly as they affect Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized communities in Global South contexts. As an Ontario Research Chair, his research focuses on how existing legal regimes such as IP, privacy, and data governance interact with emerging AI systems and shape their societal deployment. His work in this regard includes, in addition to speaking engagements at various forums, published work on digital labour and copyright law, as well as ongoing research on the regulation of digital sequence information (DSI) and agricultural applications of AI.
As part of Open AIR, Dr. Dagne currently leads York University鈥檚 contribution to the SSHRC-funded partnership grant Canada-Africa Partnership on Intellectual Property for Climate Action, in which his research addresses the role of AI governance in biodiversity and climate-resilient agriculture. He is also co-principal investigator in a project funded by the International Development Research Council (IDRC) under the title 鈥淎rtificial Intelligence / Intellectual Property / Propri茅t茅 Intellectuelle / l鈥橧ntelligence Artificielle in Africa,鈥 which seeks to place IP law and policy nearer to the centre of inclusive and responsible AI governance across the African continent. Additionally, as a member and a 鈥淩esearch Enhanced Hire鈥 with the at York University, he conducts and supervises research on the governance of AI-enabled neurotechnologies in health. He is a member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies Program at Osgoode Hall Law School and Science and Technology Studies, and actively recruits and supervises graduate students.