Highlights————————————————————————————————————————Disciplinary & Theoretical
Training in political science (major: security studies, minor: political theory) and in critical theory (PhD emphasis)

Teaching expertise in foreign policy, the ethics and politics of machine learning, and continental philosophy

Interdisciplinary expertise (aided by engineering training) in assessing Canadian AI technology for sovereignty

Policy & Technical
Published foreign policy strategist (Global Affairs Canada) and human rights analyst (Freedom House, IGLHRC)

Fine-tuner of LLMs (Falcon-H1R-7B) for geopolitical forecasting

Implemented AI-enabled pedagogy at York University’s Department of Social Science 

 

Education ————————————————————————————————————————    PhD candidate in Political Science – Department of Politics, York University, 2024-present – Dissertation: Toward a Leftist Artificial Intelligence: Technics & Theories of Retraining AI for Geopolitical Analysis in the Age of Sino-American Cyber Rivalry

PhD in Comparative Literature, emphasis in Critical Theory – Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2017-21 – Dissertation: Toward a Realpolitik and Folklore of the Left

MA in Comparative Literature – Department of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, 2015–2017 

MA in Literatures of Modernity – Department of English, Toronto Metropolitan University, 2012–2013

BASc in Mechanical Engineering – Department of Engineering, University of Waterloo, 2004–2009

 

Research Experience –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Research Assistant to Professor Jennifer Pybus – Department of Politics, York U, 2025–present – Project: Locating Sovereignty in Canada’s Data Centre Growth and AI Dependence

Research Assistant to Professor Gayatri Spivak – Critical Theory Institute, UC Irvine, 2017

Research Assistant to Professor Victoria Birgani – Women and Gender Studies, U of T, 2016–2017

Research Assistant to Professor Eric Cazdyn – Centre for Comparative Literature, U of T, 2014–2015

Research Assistant to Professor Monique Tschofen – Communication and Culture, TMU, 2012–2013

 

Teaching Experience –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Course Director

Artificial Intelligence and Its Strategic Discontents – Faculty of Arts and Science, U of T, 2023–2024 – Dissertation: The Strategic Cultures of Cyber Sovereignty in the Sino-American AI Rivalry

American Foreign Policy Through the Domestic Lens, 1945–Present – Humanities, UC Irvine, 2015–2020

Representations of Crisis in Contemporary America – Humanities, UC Irvine, 2015–2016

Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Social Economy – Social Science, York University, 2024–present – Role: Implemented AI-enabled pedagogy into the tutorial structure and introduced students to the strategic impact of AI on the social economy

Action, Spectacle – Cinema Studies Institute, U of T, 2014–2015

 Nature of Narrative I & II – Literatures of Modernity, TMU, 2012–2013

 

Conference Papers, Panels and Workshops ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Workshops & Masterclasses

Summer School: The Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence – King’s College London, 2026 – Presentation: The Political Economy of the Open Source of AI

International Policy Ideas Challenge Mentorship Workshop – Global Affairs Canada & Balsillie School of International Affairs, 2025 – Project: A Canada-EU-UK Coalition for a Balanced Digital World Order

Return to the New Commons with Étienne Balibar – The Institute for Social Inquiry, The New School, 2019

Theory and Critical Algorithmic Studies – Humanities Research Institute, UC Irvine, 2018

The Dickens Universe – UC Santa Cruz, 2013

Panels & Symposiums

Locating Sovereignty: Canada’s Data-Centre Surge and AI Infrastructure Dependence – paper accepted for the “Uneven and Contested Geographies of Data Centres” session, Royal Geographical Society International Conference, London, UK, 2026

Toward a Leftist Artificial Intelligence for Geopolitical Analysis: Addressing Conceptual and Technical gaps in the Development of Radically Equitable Artificial Agents – Equity and Artificial Intelligence Symposium, York U, 2025

Returning to the Politico-strategic Question in Aesthetics – Oppression, Exploitation and Struggle in the Time of Monsters, SOAS, 2023

The Kurdish Freedom Movement and Hope in Times of Global Capitalism – The Politics of Hope, the 8th South-South Forum on Sustainability, 2021

IRI’s Neoliberal Project amid Iran’s Transition to the Global Markets – Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia U, 2020

Critical Reflections on Survival, Endurance and Strategy in Rojava – Rethinking Crisis, Resistance and Strategy, Panteion University of Athens, 2019

The Poetics and Politics of Translation in Shamloo, Lorca, and Bacon – Iranian Studies, UC Irvine, 2018

Paper & Policy Presentations

The Canadian Data Centre Economy: The Roadmap to Regenerating a Sovereign Cloud – Association of Internet Researchers “Regenerations” Conference, Mexico City, 2026

Policy Brief: A Canada-EU-UK Coalition for a Balanced Digital World Order – Global Affairs Canada, 2025

Rival Sovereignties: AI, Labour, and the Sino-American Contest for Cyber Hegemony – Starting Over: Mass Politics and the Future of the Left Conference, U of Naples, 2025

To be Less than an Actor; More than a Sufferer: On the Absence of a Radical Philosophy of Mediation in Arendt – Arendtian Counciliarism: Visions & Care for Democracy, Hannah Arendt Center for Political Studies, U of Verona, 2025

Emancipatory Transitions in Kurdistan and The Prospect of a Radical Democratic Future – Historical Materialism: The Great Transition, UQAM, 2018

Technic and Realpolitik – Anomalies, Aberrations, and Open Futures, GCAS, 2017

The Unpredictable Trump – Around the World, U of Alberta, 2017

The Coffins: Sensory Deprivation and Surviving Prison in Iran – Survival, U of T, 2015

To Aletheia Belongs the East and The West – Repetition: with a Difference, U of T, 2014

 

Select Awards and Grants ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––International Policy Ideas Challenge – Global Affairs Canada, 2025 – $4,000

Ontario Graduate Scholarship – York University, 2025–2027 – $30,000

Dean’s Humanities Fellowship – UC Irvine, 2019–2020 – $25,000

SSHRC and CGS Fellowships – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2015–2019 – $120,000

The Jordan Center for Iranian Studies Research Grant – UC Irvine, 2016 – $10,000

Student of the Year Award for Academic Excellence – English Department, TMU, 2013 – $1,000

 

Select Publications————————————————————————————————————————Refereed Articles

Oveisy, F. (2025). Toward a folklore of the left. Cultural Critique, 127(1), 138–176.

Oveisy, F. (2026). Toward a realpolitik of the left. [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Oveisy, F. (2026). Cyber sovereign transitions to the open-source phase of AI [Manuscript submitted for publication].

Refereed Book Chapter

Oveisy, F. (2026). Toward a leftist artificial intelligence for geopolitical analysis: Addressing conceptual and technical gaps in the development of radically equitable artificial agents. In C. El Morr, R. Gorman, E. Dolatabadi, & L. Seyed-Kalantari (Eds.), Equity and artificial intelligence: Possibilities for justice and liberation. Taylor & Francis.

Refereed Short Article

Oveisy, F. (2022). Farewell, Rojava: The Philosophical Case for Strategic Thinking as a Democratic Necessity. In D. J. Smith (Ed.), Rethinking Democracy in Kurdistan [Special issue]. Philosophy, World, Democracy.

Refereed Encyclopedic Entries

Oveisy, F. (2015). Cart T. Dreyer. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Elia Kazan. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Stanley Kubrick. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Andrei Tarkovsky. In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Kenneth Anger’s “Fireworks.” In S. Ross (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism

Policy Briefs

Oveisy, F. (2025). The Third Option: Canada–EU–UK coalition for a balanced digital world order (Policy brief). International Policy Ideas Challenge, Global Affairs Canada.

Human Rights Reports

Oveisy, F., & Moghtaderi, H. (2014). Iranian queer watch: Annual report on the violation of queer rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees.

Oveisy, F., & Haerinejad, F. (2015). Best defence practices for LGBT defendants in Iranian courts. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Public-facing

Oveisy, F. (2024). The impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on the Middle East’s Kurds. Zamaneh.

Oveisy, F. (2021). The Authoritarian turn of global capital and its contradictions in the USA. Socialist Project.

Oveisy, F. (2020). A Mutating neoliberalism, socialist transitions, and their foreign policies. Hampton Institute.

Oveisy, F. (2020). Rojava after Rojava. ROAR.

Oveisy, F. (2019). Revolution and counterrevolution in Rojava. Socialist Project.

Oveisy, F., & Burc, R. (2019). Rojava is under existential threat. Jacobin.

Oveisy, F., & Amini, B. (2018). Iran Protests: A third path to political change. Socialist Project.

Oveisy, F. (2015). Bodies, breath, and borders. réflexion(s)

 

Other Experience————————————————————————————————————————–––AI Developer, Integrator

Fine-tuner of Falcon-H1R-7B – Project: Trained the model on 1xA100-80GB for advanced foreign-policy and geopolitical analysis, using a rubric designed to evaluate complex political, philosophical, and policy reasoning through human-in-the-loop feedback, structured reasoning assessment, and attention to the model’s hybrid SSM-attention architecture.

Implementer of AI-enabled pedagogy – Project: Integrated York University’s native AI (AURA) into tutorial workflows

Select Human Rights Work

Researcher and Translator – Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, 2013–2014

Researcher – The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, 2013

Translator – Freedom House, Gozaar Project, 2008–2010

Editorial Work

Editor-in-Chief – The Rojava Strategy, rojavastrategy.co

Select Activism Work

Union Organiser, Trainer, and Recruiter – UAW Local 2865, UC Irvine, 2018–2019

Select Engineering Positions

Product Development Engineer – Teknion, 2011–2012

Mechanical Engineer – Amico, 2009–2010