Leadership Talk by Charlotte Karam
For Whom and To What End? The Epistemological Leap Toward Relationality and Activism in the Age of Crises.
- Starts:14:00, 6 May 2025
- Ends:14:45, 6 May 2025
- Location:Online
- Contact:Lina Daouk-Öyry (lina.daouk-oyry@bi.no)
In a time marked by ecological collapse, geopolitical conflict, and deepening social inequities, the academy faces a profound reckoning. In this critical talk, Professor Charlotte Karam invites us to reimagine leadership in the academy—not as a role bound by hierarchy or metrics, but as a deeply relational and ethically engaged practice rooted in care, reflexivity, and collective action.
Drawing on her journey as a scholar-activist whose work bridges feminist praxis, inclusive HR systems, and business ethics, Professor Karam explores what she terms an “epistemological leap”—a paradigmatic shift away from the positivist ideals of neutrality toward situated, transformative knowledge production. She asks: Knowledge production for whom? And to what end? Through stories from her research across the MENA region, Charlotte critiques the disincentives baked into academic structures and offers a call to action: to step off the sidelines, embrace relational accountability, and reimagine our institutions in ways that support social justice. The talk will share frameworks for scholar-activism and examples of feminist participatory research and multi-stakeholder coalitions designed to build more inclusive and equitable futures.
This talk is especially relevant for faculty, graduate students, and administrators interested in ethical leadership, critical theory, and research impact beyond the university.
What is Leadership Talks?
Leadership Talks is a series of seminars about topics related to leadership, change and sustainability, project management and organizational psychology, hosted by the Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at BI Norwegian Business School.
Professor Charlotte Karam is a tenured full professor at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, where she also holds the Ian Telfer Professorship in Inclusive HR Systems. Her work as a scholar-activist bridges the fields of inclusive HR systems, business ethics, responsible leadership, public policy and feminist praxis.
As a primary investigator, Professor Karam leads an interdisciplinary team that has secured over $11M in external grants from international agencies, including the US Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, UN Women, UNDP, and several governments, including those of the EU, Canada, Sweden and Lebanon. The first phase of this work led to the development of the KIP and Lived Experience Indices — the first sector-based measures of women’s recruitment, retention and promotion in Middle Eastern and North African workplaces. In 2021, she led the second phase, the SAWI Project, which focused on mobilizing decision-makers and leaders across six sectors to engage in localized strategies for building more inclusive HR systems and workplace cultures. In 2022, this work was recognized by AACSB International’s Innovations that Inspire, and she was named among Apolitical’s list of 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy. Charlotte Karam also works on combatting gender-based violence in the workplace, with a focus on anti-sexual harassment practices and business responsibilities in the context of intimate partner violence. This work has garnered international recognition and media coverage, earning her acknowledgment by the US Department of State as a Global Gender Champion, and her research was highlighted by the Financial Times when she was chosen as one of the 2024 Problem Solvers for the Planet.
Microsoft Teams
Meeting ID: 347 253 357 544 3
Passcode: 4xk65JN3