Iman Bukhari
Positions
Doctoral Student
Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Language and Literacy
Contact information
Background
Educational Background
Master of Arts in Multimedia Communications Academy of Art University, 2016
Bachelor of Communications Studies University of Calgary, 2012
Journalism Diploma Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, 2010
Biography
Iman Bukhari is a nationally recognized Canadian leader, researcher, and advocate whose work is dedicated to building equitable and inclusive systems through technology, storytelling, and policy. Her journey is a testament to the power of turning lived experience into transformative action.
Born in Pakistan and now based in Canada, Iman’s commitment to justice was forged early, witnessing the educational disparities that keep millions of children out of school. This personal connection to global inequity fuels her pursuits. As the Founder and CEO of the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation, a national non-profit she established as a youth, Iman has spent over 15 years championing anti-racism and cross-cultural understanding. Her groundbreaking research, including Canada’s first longitudinal hate incident tracker, This Act Does Not Represent Us, has been cited in the House of Commons and redefined the national conversation on hate crimes, transforming anecdotal evidence into policy-driving data.
A skilled communicator and strategist, Iman has translated research into tangible change. Her work informed the City of Calgary’s landmark Multilingual Policy Framework and the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Anti-Racism Resource Hub. Her expertise has been recognized with numerous honours, including the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, an Immigrants of Distinction Award, and a spot on Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40.
Now, as an incoming Doctorate of Education student at the University of Calgary, Iman is pioneering the next frontier of her work: leveraging generative AI to expand educational access for out-of-school children in Pakistan. Her research aims to co-design a culturally responsive, AI-driven learning platform that empowers marginalized learners, moving beyond techno-solutionism to center agency and dignity.
Navigating her professional path as a mother of two, Iman brings profound resilience and empathy to her leadership. She stands as a bridge between Canada and the Global South, between community activism and academic rigor, and between emerging technology and human rights—a leader determined to create a world where every person has the opportunity to realize their potential.
Research
Areas of Research
Iman Bukhari’s research confronts systemic inequity by dismantling the structures of exclusion and building new frameworks for belonging. Over more than 15 years of sustained, community-engaged scholarship, she has pioneered methods for quantifying social injustice and designing equitable technological solutions. Her critically important work operates at the intersection of technology, education, and social justice, bridging Canadian multicultural policy and global educational crises.
Her innovative research has taken two primary trajectories. In Canada, her foundational studies, such as the longitudinal hate incident tracker This Act Does Not Represent Us, have transformed subjective experiences of racism into validated, national-scale evidence, directly influencing policy and public discourse. Concurrently, her doctoral work addresses one of the world's most pressing educational crises by co-designing generative AI tools for out-of-school children in Pakistan. This research moves beyond techno-solutionism, creating a model for ethical, context-responsive innovation in the Global South that centers learner agency and radical inclusion. Bukhari’s work does not simply document injustice; it actively architects a more equitable future through evidence, empathy, and engineered solution.
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Awards
- Achievement Under 35 , Immigrants Services Calgary. 2023
- Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal, Government of Alberta. 2023
- Top 40 Under 40, Avenue Magazine . 2022
- Top 30 Under 30, Alberta Council for Global Cooperation. 2017
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