The Humanities Division in the College of Arts & Sciences has several different loci for engagement with emergent AI technologies, in individual departments and in interdisciplinary centers.
Interdisciplinary Programs Engaging with AI
Writing Programs. The Program on Writing across Campus, the Technical and Professional Communications Program, and the Odegaard Writing and Research Center are, in an evidence-based manner, investigating the value of AI tools in the writing classroom and in pedagogy in higher education more generally. These centers run workshops for faculty, conduct assessment and research, and provide students with opportunities to use (and reflect on the use of) AI technologies in their writing. Megan Callow (English), Director of Writing for the UW Seattle campus, is a frequent contributor to UW conversations about the future role of generative AI in the classroom.
Program on Textual and Digital Studies. Offering an undergraduate minor and a graduate certificate, this program focuses on the history of writing supports and textual communication, from tablets and scrolls to Internet chat rooms. Geoffrey Turnovsky (French and Italian Studies), co-director of the program, is working on language learning models (LLMs) in relation to prior examples of technological innovation, such as the move from manuscript to print cultures in the early modern period.
Humanities Data Science. A new interdisciplinary research and pedagogical initiative in the division, Humanities Data Science has taken shape in the context of the University’s Data Science minor and in collaboration with the eScience institute. Anna Preus (English), director of the Humanities Data Science Lab, has worked on topics such as the use of LLMs in composing and evaluating verse, and Gian Rominger (Asian Languages) is applying AI tools in the analysis of ancient Chinese texts.
Simpson Center for the Humanities. The Simpson Center serves as an incubator for new research clusters — such as the “AI, Creativity, and the Humanities,” “A Classroom-Centered Inquiry into Generative AI,” “Reimagining Datafication,” and “Digital Border Technologies and Media” research clusters — that grapple with the popularization of AI technologies from a variety of interdisciplinary and humanistic perspectives.
Language Learning Center. The Language Learning Center is the hub for a series of energizing theoretical and practical conversations about the value of LLMs and generative AI tools in language instruction. What is gained and lost when people seek to learn languages via AI-assisted means (such as Duolingo) or try to make use of ChatGPT and other LLMs as “universal translators”? LLC director Russ Hugo is collaborating regionally and through the Big Ten Academic Alliance with other thought-leaders in language pedagogy.
Departments Engaging with AI
The Department of Linguistics is a global leader in computational linguistics, especially in relation to natural language processing (NLP). Emily Bender, Gina Levow, and other faculty also research and speak on the social and political impact of LLMs and generative AI. The department's Computational Linguistics master's program is the largest graduate program in the Humanities Division and has close ties to the local technology industry.
The Department of Cinema and Media Studies has a number of faculty exploring the cultural, aesthetic, and sociopolitical significance of emergent digital communications technologies. In particular, Golden Owens researches the genealogies of AI-assisted helper-tools such as Siri and Alexa, which she traces in relation to the racialization and gendering of service professions in the United States.