The world is multilingual; its digital infrastructure is not. Of the roughly seven thousand languages spoken today, fewer than twenty account for the overwhelming majority of digital content, and English alone accounts for over half. This asymmetry — the digital language divide — shapes who AI systems protect, who they fail, and who they leave exploitable.
My research, anchored at the Secure and Ethical AI Lab (SEAL) at CU Boulder, addresses these challenges at the intersection of AI, NLP, and security — building trustworthy systems that protect both technology and the communities that use it, regardless of language or resources.
Detailed statements describing my research vision, teaching philosophy, and approach to mentorship are available below:
For the most up-to-date overview, please see my CV or contact me directly.
Extending model capabilities to underserved languages, dialects, and creoles, with particular emphasis on Caribbean and African diaspora varieties historically absent from benchmark resources.
Investigating how foundation models generate, propagate, and detect harmful content. Builds on my F3 framework (EMNLP 2023) for understanding the dual role of LLMs as both source and shield.
Developing socio-technical frameworks for responsible model development, articulated through my Dual Curse theory connecting colonial epistemology to multilingual AI safety failures.
Building dialect-aware safety guardrails (DIA-Guard), contamination-resistant benchmarks (BLUFF), and adversarial evaluations that surface where models break before deployment does.
I am recruiting PhD students, postdocs, MS researchers, and undergraduates for SEAL — beginning Fall 2026 and Spring 2027.
Strong candidates need not arrive with all the technical pieces in place. They need curiosity, rigor, and a willingness to engage with both the technical and social dimensions of the work. The technical pieces, we build together.
I am especially committed to mentoring students from Caribbean and African diaspora communities, first-generation graduate students, and others underrepresented in AI research.
→ Get in touch or apply to the PhD program in Information Science at CU Boulder.