This conceptual paper proposes an integrative framework to address inequalities of opportunities in academia. It intersects Bourdieu's, Bronfenbrenner's, and Rawls' frameworks, suggesting ethical artificial intelligence (AI) to contextualize merit and recreate true equality. The paper argues that academic structures and doxa are inaccessible to individuals from diverse social origins, perpetuated by privileged individuals inheriting and acquiring capital from early life. It proposes using Big Data and ethical AI to reconstruct a Rawlsian 'original position of ignorance' in allocating academic capital based on merit, contextualized by social origins, and suggests 'years post-first authorship publication' as a less relativistic landmark than 'years post-PhD'.

Juliano Morimoto