Dr (Syed) Mustafa Ali

Professional biography

I completed my undergraduate degree in Electronics and Computer Science (BEng) at University College London in 1990, before going on to study an MSc in Digital Electronics at Brunel University which I obtained in 1992. Having secured EPSRC funding, I remained at Brunel and gained a PhD in (what was then) the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics in 1999.

My supervisors were Robert Zimmer and Mike Elstob, and my doctorate examiner was Peter Cariani of Harvard University. The title of my dissertation was: The Concept of Poiesis and Its Application in a Heideggerian Critique of  Computationally Emergent Artificiality, and it is available to download, along with various papers, presentations, and interview transcripts, from my academia.edu page.

My first academic appointment was as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Information Systems and Computing (DISC) at Brunel University, a post that I held from 1999-2000, before moving to the School of Computing and Communications where I currently hold the position of Lecturer in Computing.

From 8-10 April 2014, I was a Visiting Scholar at the Euro-Arab Foundation, Granada (Spain), where I delivered a three-seminar short course entitled "Towards an Islamic Decoloniality." I delivered the course again as a Visiting Scholar at the Ibn Khaldun Institute of Social Sciences, Kerala (India) from 31 December 2014 - 1 January 2015.

Research

I am Convenor of the Critical Information Studies (CrIS) research group in the School of Computing and Communications.

There are two main strands to my trans-disciplinary research:

The first (main) strand is concerned with the social and ethical aspects of computing and ICT and is motivated by a concern to explore how critical engagement with these phenomena can be used to inform computing/ICT policy – social, political, economic, and cultural, both locally and globally – with a view to enhancing social justice. I am interested in developing a hermeneutic framework that can be used to inform critical investigations of computational, informational, cybernetic, system-theoretical, and Trans-/Post-human phenomena. The framework is grounded in Heideggerian phenomenology, critical race theory, and postcolonial/decolonial thought and is being used to explore how race, religion, politics, and ethics are 'entangled' with various technological (more specifically, ICT) phenomena. In this connection, I have published work in the areas of Decolonial Computing and Algorithmic Racism, interrogating Trans-/Posthumanism, AI, and internet governance.

The second (subsidiary) strand is concerned with research, scholarship and knowledge exchange activities associated with exploration of issues at the intersection of religion, phenomenology, and decolonial thought – specifically, the forging of an 'Islamic Decoloniality'. 

Previous research interests include:

• Philosophy of computing (ontology of human‐computer interaction)
• Philosophy of technology (process ontology of artefacts)
• Philosophy of emergence (conceptual foundations and frameworks)
• Philosophy of mind (process models of consciousness)
• A‐Life and complex dynamical systems (interactive hierarchical cellular automata)

Due to the trans-disciplinary nature of my research, I have been a reviewer for a rather eclectic range of journals including: Philosophy and Society, Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, Religion, Religiographies, Royal Society Open Science, Philosophy & Technology, FirstMonday, ReOrient, Big Data & Society, World Development, Learning, Media & Technology, Kybernetes, and the Journal of Intelligent Systems.

Teaching

During my time at The Open University, I have been involved in a number of modules, both in a production and presentation capacity. As chair, these include M150 Data, Computing and Information (2005-2006 presentation chair), TU100 My Digital Life (2009-2011 production sub-chair), M255 Object‐Oriented Programming with Java (2011-2013 presentation chair), and M250 Object‐Oriented Java Programming (2011-2013 presentation chair). In 2024, I was appointed presentation chair for TMXY227 Change, Strategy and Projects at Work, and production chair for TMXY476 Apprenticeship Computing & IT Project.

I have also contributed to authoring a number of other modules including TM353 IT Systems: Planning for Success (material on IT systems and complexity, IT systems and power, IT systems and the digital divide etc.), and M366 Natural and Artificial Intelligence (material exploring philosophical issues in AI).

At Brunel University, I taught undergraduate courses in functional programming and formal systems, and computer structures, and postgraduate courses in information systems architecture and the foundations of intelligent systems.

Public engagement

In relation to public engagement, I am regularly invited to deliver talks in various fora on topics relating to artificial intelligence, decolonisation of computing, and an Islamic approach to decoloniality.

Examples include a talk entitled "An Introduction to Islamic Decoloniality" delivered at the Decolonise Not Diversify Festival which took place in Birmingham in 2016, two closing keynotes - 'Decolonising Computing (?)' and 'Can Computing be Decolonised?' - delivered at Blackathon: A Virtual Hackathon for the Diaspora in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and an invited talk entitled 'A Muslim's Guide to AI' as part of the Strive UK: Tafakkur Series in 2023.

Extracurricular activities

Outside my research and teaching activities, I watch a lot of science fiction film and television, try to find/make time to read classic utopian and dystopian science fiction novels (Butler, Wells, Stapledon, Wyndham, Bradbury, Le Guin etc.), and write and produce electronic dance music.