Bukky Shonibare

Adebukola ("Bukky") Shonibare is a PhD student at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto. Her research explores the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and justice, focusing on the potential of AI-assisted justice for survivors of sexual violence in Nigeria. She examines whether — and under what conditions — AI can be responsibly and inclusively leveraged to support evidence collection, preserve testimonial integrity, and navigate evidentiary rules, particularly within legal systems marked by infrastructural, procedural, and socio-cultural constraints. Her work challenges tech-solutionism by resisting the assumption that AI provides a straightforward path to justice. Instead, she critically examines how such technologies are conceptualized, deployed, and contested within broader efforts to address gendered violence and advance access to justice in an increasingly tech-driven world.

Bukky is the founder of Invictus Africa, a civic-tech organization that develops, amplifies, and catalyzes the use of rights-based and gender-responsive data to inform inclusive policymaking, equitable resource allocations, transformative programs, and institutional accountability.

She holds a first-class Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from Baze University, Nigeria, and an Executive Master’s degree in Managing Peace and Security in Africa (MPSA) from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She also earned a Master of Laws (LL.M) in International Law and Development from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, as a Developing Solutions Scholar, and a Master of Science (MSc) in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, as an Oxford-Commonwealth Scholar.

Bukky is an Ashoka Fellow, a Ford Global Fellow, a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Malala Fund Education Champion, and a Schwartz Reisman Institute (SRI) Graduate Fellow.