The Risks and Affordances of AI in the Humanities
A panel co-hosted by Mason Libraries and the Center for Humanities Research
Tuesday, October 8, 2024 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EDT
Hybrid event- in Horizon Hall 6325 and on zoom
Please join Mason Libraries and the Center for Humanities Research for a timely panel- "The Risks and Affordances of AI in the Humanities"
Please join Mason Libraries and the Center for Humanities Research for a timely panel- "The Risks and Affordances of AI in the Humanities"Registration required (click here!)
Understanding the myriad forms of AI requires digital literacy and thoughtful questions about its impact on humanistic research, researchers, and our audiences.
Two major questions we envision delving into:
- What are humanities-focused questions that could be answered with help from AI? (dealing with large data sets, for example)
- What are questions about AI that could be answered with a humanities focus? (looking for ways to use humanities’ strength in interpreting rich, contextual data to improve AI functionality/effectiveness, such as mitigating bias, for example)
This will be a discussion-based event, featuring very brief opening remarks by our panelists. Please come ready to discuss, debate, and share!
Light refreshments provided (and feel free to bring lunch)!
Speakers:
Doug Eyman
Douglas Eyman is Director of Writing and Rhetoric Programs at GMU. He teaches courses in digital rhetoric, technical and scientific communication, web authoring, new media, and professional writing. Eyman is the senior editor and publisher of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, an online journal that has been publishing peer-reviewed scholarship on computers and writing since 1996. His current research interests include the affordances and constraints of composing with AI/LLMs, new media scholarship, teaching in digital environments, and video games as sites of composition. With Dr. Nupoor Ranade, he recently co-edited both a special issue of Computers and Composition on "Composing with AI" and an edited collection on AI in Writing Studies.
Dasha Pruss
Dasha Pruss is an assistant professor of philosophy and computer science at George Mason University and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Previously, she was a 2023-2024 fellow at the Berkman Klein Center and a postdoctoral fellow in the Embedded EthiCS program at Harvard. Her research critically interrogates the social impacts of algorithmic decision-making systems in the US criminal legal system. In 2024, she organized Prediction and Punishment: Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Carceral AI, which brought together scholars and activists from around the world to address technologies designed to police, incarcerate, surveil, and control human beings. She is also an activist and co-organized efforts to ban police use of facial recognition and predictive policing in the city of Pittsburgh.
Moderator:
Heidi Blackburn
Dr. Heidi Blackburn is the Computing Librarian for George Mason University Libraries. Prior to Mason, Heidi was the STEM and Business Librarian for the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she served as the subject library liaison for the College of Information Science and Technology, the College of Business, and various programs and units. As the Computing Librarian, she provides research support and services to the faculty, staff, and students in Computer Science, Information Science and Technology, Game Design, Statistics, Institute for Digital InnoVation, and the Virginia Serious Game Institute. Her current research focuses on supporting women in STEM in higher education and artificial intelligence in libraries. She served as the chair of the Mason Libraries Artificial Intelligence Tools Task Force 2023-2024 and coordinates the AI Salon Series, which brings community members together to discuss current events and intersectional topics surrounding artificial intelligence.
Event Organizers: Meg Meiman, Catherine Olien, Anne Osterman, and Alok Yadav
