Connecticut College AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium: Full Schedule

7:30am EDT

Breakfast at Harris

Friday October 16, 2026 7:30am - 9:00am EDT

Harris Dining Hall

Friday October 16, 2026 7:30am - 9:00am EDT
Harris Dining Hall

Meal

9:00am EDT

Opening Session

Friday October 16, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am EDT

Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Welcome and Symposium Overview

Friday October 16, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am EDT
Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

9:30am EDT

Opening Plenary — The Year of an Awakening in the Liberal Arts

Friday October 16, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am EDT

Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

This opening panel brings together AI leaders from small liberal arts colleges who first connected at the inaugural AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium and left with a shared conviction: that navigating AI in the liberal arts context requires ongoing collaboration across institutions. The panelists will reflect on the year since that first gathering. What has changed on their campuses? What...
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Speakers

George Cusack

Director of Academic AI Initiatives, Carleton College

Eric Chown

Jaya Kannan

Director of Technology for Curriculum and Research, Amherst College

Jaya Kannan is Director of Technology for Curriculum and Research at Amherst College, where she leads the Academic Technology Services unit. She holds a PhD in Computer Assisted Language Learning and her higher education background spans international teaching, faculty development... Read More →

Susan Purrington

Harold F. Wiley Generative AI Teaching and Learning Fellow, Connecticut College

Lori Robbins

Head of AI Strategy, Denison University

Lori Robbins is Denison University's Head of AI Strategy, where she leads campus-wide initiatives focused on AI literacy and professional development. With a background in international education and educational technology, she creates programs that help students, faculty, and staff... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am EDT
Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Plenary, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

10:45am EDT

Harold F. Wiley Keynote Presentation

Friday October 16, 2026 10:45am - 12:00pm EDT

Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Harold F. Wiley Keynote — a 75-minute featured address by Dr. Jon Ippolito.

Speakers

Dr. Jon Ippolito

Friday October 16, 2026 10:45am - 12:00pm EDT
Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Keynote, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

12:00pm EDT

Lunch at Harris

Friday October 16, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT

Harris Dining Hall

Friday October 16, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Harris Dining Hall

Meal

1:00pm EDT

AI Is Not Transforming Education—We Are Using It to Preserve It

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 1:10pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Artificial intelligence is widely framed as a transformative force in higher education, yet this assumption overlooks a persistent historical pattern: technology alone rarely produces meaningful change. Drawing on research examining how curricular ideology and pedagogical beliefs shape technology adoption, this presentation argues that institutions do not adapt to technology—technology is...
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Speakers

Chris Bernard

Chief Information Security Officer, The Jackson Laboratory

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 1:10pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company The Jackson Laboratory

1:00pm EDT

The Design Problem of AI Literacy: Teaching Thinking When Answers Are Instant

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT

Blaustein 210

In AI-rich classrooms, answers often arrive before questions. This creates a central paradox for liberal arts education: tools that promise intellectual support can also short-circuit the uncertainty and iteration through which thinking develops. This session reframes AI literacy as the ability to structure and sustain inquiry when answers are instantly available. Participants will examine how...
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Speakers

Benjamin Breyer

Senior Lecturer, Barnard College

Benjamin Breyer is Senior Lecturer in English at Barnard College, where he teaches First-Year Writing and directs research on AI-mediated learning and rhetorical scaffolds in the liberal arts. His work focuses on designing writing instruction that reinforces critical reading, interpretive... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Barnard College

1:00pm EDT

The Great AIqualizer: How Small Liberal Arts Colleges Can Use AI to Rethink Administrative Work, Faculty Support, and Student Success

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

The conversation about AI in higher education is loud, anxious, and often dominated by the largest institutions with the most resources to navigate it. Small liberal arts colleges are watching from a complicated position: wary of the hype (if not downright resistant), uncertain about the risks, and not entirely sure the opportunity being described is one that was designed with them in...
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Speakers

Manuel Lopez

Associate Provost, New College of Florida

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company New College of Florida

1:00pm EDT

AI Play Lab

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

This is the dedicated AI Tool demo and exploration space with our Symposium Friends and/or each other.

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

AI Play Lab

1:00pm EDT

Lightning Talks - AI Literacy and What Students Learn

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

This session includes the following four talks:10 minutes each with 20 minutes of Q&A for the group1. AI Is Not Transforming Education—We Are Using It to Preserve It Chris Bernard | The Jackson Laboratory2. Critical from the Start: A Coordinated AI Literacy Model for the First-Year Liberal Arts Seminar Sarah Lohnes Watulak & Dr. Amy Collier | Middlebury College3. What...
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Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning

1:00pm EDT

Managing AI Burnout: Self Care for Faculty and Librarians

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Adapting to new technologies is a staple of academic life, but the rapid rise of generative AI is creating an unsustainable mental and emotional landscape for faculty and librarians. Beyond the daunting technical learning curve and the exhausting game of “whack-a-mole” as AI “assistants” pop up in familiar tools, this shift brings profound existential repercussions. Ethical dilemmas and...
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Speakers

Erin Hasley

Irene McGarrity

Head of Research Services, Mount Holyoke College

Irene McGarrity is Head of Research Services at Mount Holyoke College, where she leads a team of four research and instruction librarians. She holds an MSIS in Information Studies, as well as an MFA in Creative Writing, and an MA in English Literature. Irene has presented regionally... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

Company Mount Holyoke College; Little Teal Design

1:10pm EDT

Critical from the Start: A Coordinated AI Literacy Model for the First-Year Liberal Arts Seminar

Friday October 16, 2026 1:10pm - 1:20pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

First-year students arrive at liberal arts institutions at the precise moment they are forming their intellectual and ethical identities as scholars, and they arrive already using AI. At Middlebury College, we designed a coordinated, multi-modal approach to help students critically engage with AI within that formative context. Our model centers on GenAI @ Middlebury, a short asynchronous...
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Speakers

Amy Collier

Associate Provost for Digital Learning, Middlebury

Sarah Lohnes Watulak

Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media, Middlebury College

Friday October 16, 2026 1:10pm - 1:20pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Middlebury College

1:30pm EDT

What Should Students Learn? Navigating the Paradox of AI in Liberal Arts Education

Friday October 16, 2026 1:30pm - 1:40pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

What should students learn when the skills cultivated through higher education increasingly intersect with technologies capable of performing some of those same tasks? Students find themselves at the center of a paradox. Liberal arts institutions continue to emphasize critical thinking, communication, writing, ethical reasoning, creativity, and problem-solving, while employers increasingly seek...
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Speakers

Javkhlan Batsaikhan

Student, Amherst College

I’m Javkhlan Batsaikhan; please call me Jay. I’m an undergraduate student studying Psychology and Education Studies at Amherst College, with interests in AI, higher education, student learning, and the future of work. At the symposium, I’ll present “What Should Students Learn... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 1:30pm - 1:40pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Amherst College

1:30pm EDT

Building the AI Ready Campus

Friday October 16, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Higher education is entering a new era where AI is reshaping how institutions engage students, support staff, and operate at scale. Yet many campuses are still struggling to determine what true AI readiness actually looks like.This session explores how institutions can move beyond experimentation to build an AI-ready campus grounded in strategy, governance, and practical implementation. Attendees...
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Speakers

JC Bonilla

Friday October 16, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Element451

1:30pm EDT

Is this AI?: Fostering Critical AI Media Literacy

Friday October 16, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT

Blaustein 210

"Is this AI?" is a question vexing even the most media-savvy users today, as synthetic images and videos grow exponentially more convincing, with widespread circulation. But are there reliable "tells" and transferable frameworks for critical AI media literacy, even in this rapidly shifting landscape? This interactive presentation invites participants to examine a curated selection of images and...
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Speakers

Melanie Hibbert

Friday October 16, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Barnard College, Columbia University

2:15pm EDT

AI and Ethics: Two Ideas, One Course

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

What can AI do, and what should it do? My approach to AI and Ethics builds a single inquiry from two disciplines that rarely share a room: computer science, where students implement a neural network from first principles without libraries, and serious philosophy, where they reason about how one ought to act. The pairing exposes a tension at the heart of the liberal arts in the age of AI. If a...
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Speakers

Darcy Otto

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Bennington College

2:15pm EDT

Say “Yes” to the Mess: Critical Writing Process Reflection in the Age of GenAI

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

A common solution for wide-spread genAI use in writing courses is to incorporate tools like track changes and version histories. Ideally, these tools help students chart their writing process while working on an assignment. In practice, these tools can reinforce ideas of writing as complete and “perfectable” products with tracking changes acting as “proof” that students’ writing is their...
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Speakers

Noah Wason

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company SUNY Cortland

2:15pm EDT

Element451 AI Play Lab

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

This is the dedicated Element451 AI Tool demo and exploration space.

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

AI Play Lab

2:15pm EDT

Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein 208

Discussion on academic integrity and the honor code in the age of AI.

Speakers

Sarah Cardwell

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein 208

Round Table, Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

2:15pm EDT

From Experimentation to Governance: How AI Communities of Practice Shape Institutional AI Adoption

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein 203

Artificial intelligence adoption in higher education is often discussed through policy or technology strategy, but much of the real work is happening informally through experimentation, peer learning, and day-to-day problem solving across institutions. This session explores how AI Communities of Practice can help universities move from fragmented experimentation toward more thoughtful and...
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Speakers

Darice Corey

Senior Director, Yale College - Web and IT Planning

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein 203

Round Table, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Yale University

2:15pm EDT

Redefining the Honor Code for the Generative Era

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

The rise of generative AI has disrupted the "finished essay" as a proxy for critical thinking, creating a profound paradox: tools that mimic analysis threaten to hollow out the very processes they simulate. This session proposes a shift from "policing output" to "partnering in process." Moving beyond surveillance-based integrity models, we explore how to evolve the Honor Code into a proactive...
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Speakers

Alyson Snowe

Associate Professor, Community College of Rhode Island

With extensive experience teaching across Northeast colleges over the past 25 years, Alyson Snowe brings a profound understanding to the English Department at CCRI, where she's been since 2018. Holding a Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Snowe teaches diverse courses... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

Company Community College of Rhode Island

2:45pm EDT

Reducing LLM Drift Using Explicit Ethical and Policy-Based Principles

Friday October 16, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Large language models (LLM) are being used in educational settings to provide guidance, feedback, and policy-related judgments. However, these systems produce inconsistent responses to similar cases, raising concerns about fairness, transparency, and trust. Rather than relying on probabilistic model output, our approach represents cases in terms of salient features and...
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Speakers

Timothy James Becker

Miriam Clemente

Friday October 16, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

Company Connecticut College

2:45pm EDT

The Imagined Author in the Age of AI

Friday October 16, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

This presentation examines how generative and agentic AI systems reshape traditional understandings of authorship, rhetorical agency, and literacy within contemporary writing practices. Drawing on Walter Ong’s fictionalized audience, Wayne Booth’s implied author, Michel Foucault’s author-function, Roland Barthes’ “death of the author,” and Eefje Claassen’s work on author...
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Speakers

Brenda Hardin Abbott

Associate Professor of English, Bay Path University

Friday October 16, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Bay Path University

3:25pm EDT

From Initiative to Institutional Collaborative

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 3:35pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Like many small liberal arts colleges, we at Davidson College set out in the spring of 2024 to explore generative AI and its impacts on teaching and learning for our campus. Our initial approaches were thoughtful, intentional, and ultimately inadequate due in large part to the perennial challenges of communication and coordination. Fast-forwarding to this spring (2026), we have embarked upon a...
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Speakers

Jacob Heil

AD of Instruction, Research, & Digital Scholarship, Davidson College

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 3:35pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Davidson College

3:25pm EDT

From Shortcut to Thought Partner: Training Liberal Arts Students to Collaborate With AI

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 3:55pm EDT

Blaustein 210

This session introduces Colgate University’s Innovation Fellows and their use of AI, and its evolution into a new undergraduate consulting program that pairs human-centered design (Design Thinking) with intentional, responsible AI use to solve real campus problems. Rather than viewing AI as a shortcut, this program trains liberal arts students to leverage it as an active collaborative thought...
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Speakers

Karen Harpp

Professor, Colgate University

Ahmad Khazaee

Director of creative technologies, engagement and support, Colgate University

Ahmad is currently the director of creative Technologies, Engagement and Support. With previous roles in student support, instructional support, and desktop administration he is able to leverage a variety of perspectives when approaching new problems.

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 3:55pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Colgate University

3:25pm EDT

Lightning Talks - Institutional Programs and Equity

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 4:25pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

This session includes the following four talks:10 minutes each with 20 minutes of Q&A for the group1. From Initiative to Institutional Collaborative Jacob Heil | Davidson College2. Developing an “AI and the Liberal Arts” Academic Certificate Willie Wilson | Franklin & Marshall College3. AI and the Digital Divide: A New Era of Educational Inequity Atousa...
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Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 4:25pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning

3:25pm EDT

Designing the Future of AI: Using Design Thinking to Engage Students as Co-Creators of Institutional AI Strategy

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 4:25pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

As colleges and universities grapple with the opportunities and tensions surrounding artificial intelligence, many institutional conversations occur without substantial student input. At Gettysburg College, we sought to address this gap by inviting students to become co-designers of our emerging AI initiatives through a series of design thinking workshops titled Designing the Future of AI at...
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Speakers

Richard Russell

Professor of Psychology, Gettysburg College

Richard Russell is a professor of psychology at Gettysburg College. Trained in cognitive science, he discovered and named super-recognizers, people with exceptional ability to recognize faces. He is now working on humanistic, cybernetic, and cognitive science approaches to understanding... Read More →

Josh Wagner

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 4:25pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Gettysburg College

3:25pm EDT

The AI-Native Classroom: Early Lessons from a Pilot in my Class at Carnegie Mellon

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 4:25pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Title:The AI-Native Classroom: Early Lessons from a Carnegie Mellon PilotAbstract:For the past year, debates about AI in higher education have largely focused on student access to tools such as ChatGPT. Yet access to AI and learning in an AI-native environment are not the same thing. This session examines what happened when AI was integrated directly into course materials, learning activities, and...
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Speakers

David Miller

Friday October 16, 2026 3:25pm - 4:25pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Workshop, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Carnegie Mellon University-Silicon Valley

3:30pm EDT

AI Play Lab

Friday October 16, 2026 3:30pm - 5:00pm EDT

Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

This is the dedicated AI Tool demo and exploration space with our Symposium Friends and/or each other.

Friday October 16, 2026 3:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

AI Play Lab

3:35pm EDT

Developing an “AI and the Liberal Arts” Academic Certificate

Friday October 16, 2026 3:35pm - 3:45pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Students and parents are increasingly eager for academic validation of AI proficiency that will be viable in the modern marketplace. As a liberal arts institution, our objective is to cultivate competencies that transcend technical utility, fostering a holistic framework for engaging with these technologies. To equip students with both technical foundations and the capacity to critically evaluate...
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Speakers

Willie Wilson

Associate Professor of Computer Science, Franklin & Marshall College

I am trying to guide our campus in ethical AI practices. I have been working with students, faculty, and staff to educate them on AI, its strengths, and its weaknesses. I'm also listening to their concerns and how they would like to use AI.

Students, faculty, staff, and administration all have different needs and objectives. Also, faculty from STEM and humanities usually have vastly different experiences with AI and are taking very different approaches. I'm looking to talk with people about how to get people on the same... Read More →

Friday October 16, 2026 3:35pm - 3:45pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Franklin & Marshall College

3:45pm EDT

AI and the Digital Divide: A New Era of Educational Inequity

Friday October 16, 2026 3:45pm - 3:55pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Since the rise of AI in recent years has become an unavoidable issue in educational systems, its widespread use and accessibility need to be studied. Before addressing the complex question of whether using AI for writing assignments in the classroom is ethical, as well as questions of authorship, there is another issue that remains understudied. The digital divide and inaccessibility of free and...
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Speakers

Atousa Kaviani

Friday October 16, 2026 3:45pm - 3:55pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

Company Binghamton University

3:55pm EDT

The Other Side of the Desk: Student Perceptions of Faculty AI Use in the Liberal Arts

Friday October 16, 2026 3:55pm - 4:05pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

While considerable research has examined how students use generative AI, and how faculty feel about that use, no study to date has reversed the lens. This mixed-methods campus survey of ~400 liberal arts students and 100 faculty investigates how these populations perceive and evaluate each others' AI practices. Our findings reveal striking convergences and divergences. Students and faculty share...
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Speakers

Lauren Howard

Willie Wilson

Associate Professor of Computer Science, Franklin & Marshall College

Friday October 16, 2026 3:55pm - 4:05pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

Company Franklin & Marshall College

3:55pm EDT

Cultivating Judgment Through Guided Experience: A Human-Centered Approach to AI Literacy

Friday October 16, 2026 3:55pm - 4:25pm EDT

Blaustein 210

This session proposes how to define and teach “AI literacy” in liberal arts classrooms for the increasingly AI-integrated world. Unguided AI use does not automatically produce literacy; instructions focused solely on a technical capacity will become outdated at every major model change. Instead, AI literacy must be captured as a disposition, or a durable habit of the mind, that emphasizes the...
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Speakers

Sawa Kurotani

Professor, University of Redlands

Friday October 16, 2026 3:55pm - 4:25pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company University of Redlands

4:40pm EDT

Pop-up Book Club — Academic Integrity in the Age of AI (Session 1 of 2)

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT

Blaustein 203

Pop-up Book Club (30 min), Session 1 of 2. Facilitators: Sarah Lohnes Watulak & Amy Collier (Middlebury College).

Speakers

Amy Collier

Associate Provost for Digital Learning, Middlebury

Sarah Lohnes Watulak

Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media, Middlebury College

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT
Blaustein 203

Book Club, Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

Company Middlebury College

4:40pm EDT

Student Experiences: DavisAI Summer Research

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room session featuring student experiences from DavisAI Summer Research. Presenters: Connecticut College students.

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Connecticut College

4:40pm EDT

Can AI Play? Teaching French Video Games and Critical AI Literacy in the Language Classroom

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Can an AI play a video game? This workshop uses that deceptively simple question to explore one of the deepest paradoxes AI poses to liberal arts education: the difference between knowing about an experience and living it. Drawing on a Francophone video game course taught at UMass Amherst featuring Valiant Hearts, Life is Strange True Colors, and Under the Waves, this session demonstrates how AI...
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Speakers

Emmanuel Buzay

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Independent Researcher

4:40pm EDT

The Sacred and The Synthetic: Cultivating Higher-Order Thinking and Explorative Inquiry in the AI-Era Liberal Arts Classroom

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Artificial intelligence presents liberal arts educators with a profound contradiction: AI can automate portions of research, analysis, and writing while simultaneously creating new opportunities for inquiry, interdisciplinary thinking, and human-centered learning. This interactive session explores how liberal arts classrooms can utilize AI not to replace student thought, but to deepen...
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Speakers

Naomi Jennifer Moore

Friday October 16, 2026 4:40pm - 5:10pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Workshop, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Goldey Beacom College

5:15pm EDT

Welcome Cocktail Reception

Friday October 16, 2026 5:15pm - 6:15pm EDT

Humphrey's (Crozier-Williams, Second floor)

Friday October 16, 2026 5:15pm - 6:15pm EDT
Humphrey's (Crozier-Williams, Second floor)

Meal

6:15pm EDT

Welcome Dinner

Friday October 16, 2026 6:15pm - 8:30pm EDT

Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Supported by our Symposium Patron, Element451

Friday October 16, 2026 6:15pm - 8:30pm EDT
Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

7:30am EDT

Breakfast at Harris

Saturday October 17, 2026 7:30am - 9:00am EDT

Harris Dining Hall

Saturday October 17, 2026 7:30am - 9:00am EDT
Harris Dining Hall

Meal

9:00am EDT

The Great AI Debate

Saturday October 17, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT

Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Oxford-style debate supported by ScholarStack AI. House Motion: This House believes that wisdom cannot be synthesized by AI. Patrick Dempsey (Proposition) vs. Anand Rao (Opposition). Floor vote before & after; moderated Q&A.

Speakers

Anand Rao

Director, Center for AI and the Liberal Arts, University of Mary Washington

Sponsors

ScholarStack AI

ScholarStack AI is a B2B platform that positions itself as "AI infrastructure" for higher education, giving institutions, faculty, and students a governed alternative to informal use of tools like ChatGPT. Rather than letting AI simply hand students answers, it uses guided, Socratic-style... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 9:00am - 10:00am EDT
Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Debate, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

10:20am EDT

Beyond Summaries: Reclaiming Reading in an AI-mediated world

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 10:50am EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Global decline in reading motivation has coincided with educators assigning fewer whole books. Moreover, teaching reading has become challenging as AI offers automated-summaries, allowing students to skip deep reading. Drawing on research from the neuroscience of reading, this interactive session will address questions from both the instructors’ and students’ perspectives:What...
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Speakers

Jaya Kannan

Director of Technology for Curriculum and Research, Amherst College

Kristina Reardon

Amherst College

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 10:50am EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Amherst College

10:20am EDT

How Can We Thoughtfully Respond to AI? Cultivating a Critical AI Literacy in the Writing Classroom

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Blaustein 203

As many campuses begin adding AI tools into their classrooms, there is immense pressure to figure out how to quickly implements these technologies in order to avoid being left behind. As digital humanists, though, we also emphasize incorporating new technology carefully and critically which often contrasts with the ways these technologies flood bland, AI generated text into our classrooms. To this...
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Speakers

Noah Wason

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Blaustein 203

Round Table, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company SUNY Cortland

10:20am EDT

The Engineer's Paradox: Why Building AI Systems Made Me Argue Harder for the Liberal Arts

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Blaustein 208

I build the AI systems that liberal arts educators worry about. Seven years of designing enterprise cloud and AI platforms for higher education and healthcare has produced an unexpected conviction: the more capable these systems become, the more indispensable the liberal arts skills they cannot replicate. This session names the paradox directly. The same tools that automate writing also raise the...
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Speakers

Chaitanya Gunupudi

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Blaustein 208

Round Table, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company University of Maryland

10:20am EDT

“Under Review – Liberal Arts Edition”: Using a Table Top Role-Playing Game for AI Literacy

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

This hands-on workshop uses a tabletop role-playing game format to build practical AI literacy in an engaging, low-stakes environment. Participants take on characters facing real-world scenarios, such as drafting a research paper, responding to a workplace email, evaluating a suspicious source, and must decide how, when, and whether to use AI tools to help. Dice rolls and simple game mechanics...
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Speakers

Gerard Gadigian

Connecticut College

Lori Looney

Research and Data Librarian, Connecticut College

Susan Purrington

Harold F. Wiley Generative AI Teaching and Learning Fellow, Connecticut College

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

Company Connecticut College

10:20am EDT

When the Product Is No Longer Proof: Ungrading, AI, and the Human Future of Learning

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Artificial intelligence has intensified a question many educators were already beginning to ask: What evidence truly demonstrates learning? For decades, higher education has relied on products—papers, exams, presentations, and projects—as proxies for student understanding. Generative AI challenges this assumption by making it increasingly difficult to determine whether a finished product...
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Speakers

Divonna Stebick

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:20am - 11:20am EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Workshop, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Gettysburg College

10:30am EDT

AI Play Lab

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:30am - 4:30pm EDT

Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

This is the dedicated AI Tool demo and exploration space with our Symposium Friends and/or each other.

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:30am - 4:30pm EDT
Shain Library Visualization Wall (Lower level)

AI Play Lab

10:50am EDT

Literature as Information Control: How Understanding Narrative Increases AI Literacy

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:50am - 11:20am EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Narrative is deeply embedded in everything from our personal habits to socioeconomic guidelines and the operation of digital systems. This presentation introduces how—by connecting the study of literature to daily interactions with these systems—we can increase the value students discover in their literature courses, and better communicate how they apply that value to their personal and...
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Speakers

Ryan Crawford

Director of First Year Writing/Assistant Professor of Practice, University of New Haven

Ryan Crawford is Assistant Professor of Practice and Director of First-Year Writing in the Department of English at University of New Haven. His research, including the book Emotional Value in the Composition Classroom: Self, Agency, and Neuroplasticity, combines neuroscience, composition... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 10:50am - 11:20am EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company University of New Haven

11:30am EDT

Pop-up Book Club — Academic Integrity in the Age of AI (Session 2 of 2)

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Blaustein 203

Academic Integrity in the Age of AI (Bertram Gallant, Davis, & Khan, 2026) includes a speculative fiction story imagining a university in 2045, a future in which institutions layer AI onto outdated teaching and assessment models instead of rethinking academic integrity for this new era. This pop-up book club uses that story to spark conversation across two 30-minute sessions. No advance...
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Speakers

Amy Collier

Associate Provost for Digital Learning, Middlebury

Sarah Lohnes Watulak

Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media, Middlebury College

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Blaustein 203

Book Club, Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

Company Middlebury College

11:30am EDT

Publishing at the Speed of AI

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

AI is compressing the timeline from idea to publication—but faster doesn't have to mean sloppier. In this 30-minute session, Second Draft Labs, a new publishing company, walks through their publishing process, showing how AI tools can accelerate drafting, editing, and production without sacrificing the judgment and craft that good publishing depends on. Attendees will leave with a clear picture...
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Speakers

Patrick Dempsey

Adam Pryor

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Second Draft Labs

11:30am EDT

Beyond “AI Police”: Equitable Oral Assessment Design

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Oral assessments are often proposed as an “AI-resistant” alternative to written assignments that foster cognitive skills that are especially important in an AI-infused world, such as empathy, conversational communication, and situated-decision making. The unique opportunities offered by oral assessments, however, also come with unique equity challenges that require creative and potentially...
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Speakers

Meredith Gilman

Dr., Connecticut College

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Workshop, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Connecticut College

11:30am EDT

Take My Hand and Tell Me What You See: AI and Museum Accessibility

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

At Amherst College, Mead Art Museum and Academic Technology Services work to apply innovative applications of technology including enhancement of digital accessibility. Emerging AI technology has recently brought us together in collaboration focused on making the Mead’s digital collection more searchable, discoverable and accessible through the production of multimodal collection descriptions.In...
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Speakers

Prakhar Agrawal

IT Student Researcher, Amherst College

Prakhar is a rising junior at Amherst College, pursuing a triple major in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Economics. He is deeply interested in leveraging emerging technologies to solve interdisciplinary challenges and advance accessibility initiatives. With experience working... Read More →

Andres Fernandez

Mead Art Museum Student Worker, Amherst College

Andres is a rising sophomore at Amherst College, pursuing a double major in English and Mathematics. He is curious about the applications of AI in a range of fields, including museums. He is passionate about channeling his curiosity of AI into learning about the various ways by which... Read More →

Douglas Hall

IT Research Computing Specialist, Amherst College

Doug Hall provides support across the disciplines for academic research computing and emerging technologies. This includes pedagogy-driven consultation and workshops for high performance computing and artificial intelligence applications. He has a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering... Read More →

Miloslava Hruba

Manager of Collections Access and Academic Engagement, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College

Dr. Miloslava Hruba is an accomplished museum professional and researcher dedicated to bridging the intersections of art collections, pedagogy, and digital accessibility. Her current work focuses on the ethical integration of generative AI within academic programming, exploring how... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 11:30am - 12:00pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Amherst College; Mead Art Museum

12:00pm EDT

Lunch at Harris

Saturday October 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT

Harris Dining Hall

Saturday October 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Harris Dining Hall

Meal

1:00pm EDT

A Practical Framework for Assessing AI Risk and Readiness in Divisions, Centers, Programs, and Departments

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Colleges and universities have barely begun to evaluate the risks and rewards of ubiquitous AI use on their campuses. This session introduces a framework for assessing AI readiness and risk in divisions, departments, centers, and programs. This presentation will highlight key research, legal precedents, and strategies for identifying gaps between policy and pedagogy. Using an experiential...
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Speakers

Nakia Hamlett-Nunes

Connecticut College

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Connecticut College

1:00pm EDT

Beyond the Blue Book: AI Simulations and the New Measure of Liberal Arts Learning

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT

Blaustein 210

From the ancient Greeks forward, liberal arts education has never been only about storing information. It has been about forming judgment through practice: rhetoric in the agora, philosophical dialogue, ethical deliberation, and the disciplined use of language in public life. Oratory, dialectic, and disputation were not simply ways of displaying knowledge, but of testing whether a person could...
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Speakers

Jeanine DeFalco

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 1:30pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Mixta AI Inc

1:00pm EDT

Lightning Talks - Critical & Rhetorical Perspectives

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

This session includes the following four talks:10 minutes for each presenter with 20 minutes of Q&A for the group.1. Hegel, Mastery and Servitude, and the Pathologies of AI Michael Reno | University of Mary Washington2. Scaffolding Rhetorical Authority through Intentional Failure Jeffrey L. Jackson | State University of New York Cortland3. Tools of One's Own: Portable...
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Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning

1:00pm EDT

Grappling with Pedagogical Practice that Centers the Human Element — in the Context of AI

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

This workshop is designed for educators who want to help students learn how to formulate meaningful questions as researchers and thinkers in the liberal arts while creating classroom spaces where critical engagement with AI can occur.First we will share artifacts from Pratt Institute classrooms that highlight faculty and student exploration of new forms of inquiry. Second, we will introduce...
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Speakers

Liz Knauer

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute

Karyn Zieve

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Pratt Institute

1:10pm EDT

Scaffolding Rhetorical Authority through Intentional Failure

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:10pm - 1:20pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

This lightning talk introduces Iterative Failure Tracing (IFT), a framework that reframes generative AI errors as catalysts for critical inquiry. While Large Language Models threaten to replace student effort, their propensity for noun-heavy syntax and factual hallucinations creates a productive validation burden (Sanz-Tejeda et al., 2026). By identifying these critical incidents, students...
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Speakers

Jeffrey L. Jackson

Instructor, SUNY Cortland

Jeffrey L. Jackson, PhD, is an Instructor of First-Year Composition at SUNY Cortland with over 20 years of experience teaching writing at the university level. He earned his doctorate in Mass Communication from Syracuse University, where his research focused on identity and moral... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:10pm - 1:20pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company SUNY Cortland

1:20pm EDT

Tools of One's Own: Portable Prompting and the Iterative Craft of Professional Identity

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:20pm - 1:30pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Many students use AI passively, and AI literacy is often taught apart from disciplinary work, so students graduate owning neither their nascent professional identity, their digital presence, nor their AI workflows. Crafting Digital Identity answers that gap by teaching tools of one's own. Because its real content is the students themselves, the course is interdisciplinary by design. Students build...
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Speakers

Ben Harwood

Lead Instructional Technologist, Skidmore College

Ben Harwood works as an instructional designer in the Learning Experience Design and Digital Scholarship (LEDS) group in the Information Technology office. He partners with community members to analyze and support technology needs and offers instructional opportunities that promote... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:20pm - 1:30pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Skidmore College

1:30pm EDT

Adding Nuance to Student AI Refusal

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:30pm - 1:40pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Bard College students often have an unusually steadfast position of AI refusal, resulting, for example, in campus protests against a planned generative AI promotional event and reticence to engage in assignments that necessitate thinking with AI. We are both heartened and concerned by this stance. While students are finding their voices, their standpoint is based on a limited understanding of AI...
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Speakers

Theresa Law

Annabel Rothschild

Assistant Prof, Computer Science, Bard College

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:30pm - 1:40pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Lightning, AI, the Liberal Arts, and the Future of Work

Company Bard College

1:30pm EDT

Awaken the Liberal Arts: Responsible AI Ecosystem by Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

"The sleep of liberal arts produces AI." At the opening of the previous symposium, the keynote speaker shrewdly put forward this statement, proposing the liberal arts education to stay awake in the age of AI. At Colby College, the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence endeavors to integrate the two, interrogating and experimenting a liberal arts education organically intertwined with AI. In...
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Speakers

Mingwei Zhu

AI Applications Engineer, Colby College

Position at Company ABC.

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Colby College)

1:30pm EDT

Vibe Coding the Liberal Arts: From Plain Language to Playable Simulation

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT

Blaustein 210

Vibe coding — building working software through natural-language conversation with AI rather than traditional programming — has quietly removed the technical barrier that once kept faculty and students from creating their own interactive learning tools. This session embodies the symposium's central paradox: the same capability that lets a student generate code without understanding it can let...
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Speakers

Florencia Ines Gabriele

Saturday October 17, 2026 1:30pm - 2:00pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Berklee College of Music

2:15pm EDT

A Scalable AI Course Redesign Protocol

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into higher education has created an urgent and widespread need for course redesign, yet most institutions lack the time, funding, and staffing to support faculty at scale. This presentation introduces a structured, AI-assisted course redesign protocol developed at the Yale School of Public Health to address this gap. Designed to be completed in a...
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Speakers

Mike Honsberger

Director of Academic Affairs, Yale School of Public Health

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Yale University

2:15pm EDT

Plot Twist: Unexpected Findings from Student AI Use at Denison

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

At a time when headlines suggest AI use among students is rapidly accelerating, Denison University’s second How I GenAI survey revealed a more complicated (and surprising) story. This session explores unexpected findings about how students are actually engaging with generative AI, including shifts in usage patterns, student concerns, trust, academic integration, and evolving attitudes toward AI...
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Speakers

Heath Hase

Associate Vice President of Digital Innovation, Denison University

Heath Hase’s distinguished career in academic technologies and IT leadership has spanned key roles at esteemed institutions such as Southeast Missouri State University, the University of North Carolina, William Jewell College, and Denison University. Recognized by Apple as a Distinguished... Read More →

Lori Robbins

Head of AI Strategy, Denison University

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Denison University

2:15pm EDT

For the Record, How Do We Record (Using AI)? Ethical Questions Regarding the Use of AI Technology to Retain Information

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein 203

Speakers

Dr. Rachel Cockrell

Program Director and Professor of the Business Department, Redlands Community College

Elise McCauley

Professor of Speech and English; Assistant Department Head of Liberal Arts, Redlands Community College

Marcia Shottenkirk

Department Head for Liberal Arts, Redlands Community College

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein 203

Round Table, Ethics, Equity, and Environmental Impact

Company Redlands Community College

2:15pm EDT

The Evidence I Wish I Had: Reframing the Detection Spiral

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

This workshop is for any instructor who has sat in front of a paper wondering whether the words on the page truly represent the work of the student who submitted it. How do we preserve the valuable intellectual work fostered by extended writing projects while maintaining confidence that the submissions we receive reflect what students can actually do? Some instructors seek certainty by moving...
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Speakers

Melissa Forbes

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Academic Integrity and the Honor Code

Company Gettysburg College

2:45pm EDT

A Capabilities-Based Approach to Figuring Out Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

AI provides an unmatched opportunity for both accelerating and degrading high quality learning. Institutions of higher education must adapt by providing guidance to faculty and students across all departments; integrating AI literacy into the larger curricula rather than only covering it in specific computer science courses. In order to most effectively plan and evaluate these actions, we argue...
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Speakers

Cade Puzon

5th Year Fellow, Colby College

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Colby College)

2:45pm EDT

Understanding and Leveraging Student Ambivalence to AI

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

In this presentation, I'll review the recent data on student attitudes towards AI, which show consistent negative trends in students optimism that AI will make their lives better and their belief that AI itself is ultimately a positive force in the world. I'll then discuss the challenges and opportunities that these trends present for liberal arts faculty and institutions. I'll argue that, within...
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Speakers

George Cusack

Director of Academic AI Initiatives, Carleton College

Saturday October 17, 2026 2:45pm - 3:15pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Carleton College

3:30pm EDT

Developing an AI-Focused Faculty Learning Community (FLC)

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

Blaustein 210

What is a faculty learning community (FLC)? Why is this model so relevant for the topic of AI and the Liberal Arts? This session proposes to answer these questions by introducing the FLC model, which brings together faculty and staff in a community of practice, and to argue for its relevance as a means of fostering interdisciplinary and collaborative connections, debates, and discussions, as well...
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Speakers

Elisabeth Buzay

Visiting Assistant Professor - Francophone Studies, Trinity College

Elisabeth Herbst Buzay is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Francophone Studies at Trinity College. Her research focuses on topics including multimedia medievalism and extraordinary communication, in works ranging from French Medieval literature to contemporary French fantasy works... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Trinity College

3:30pm EDT

The Student Voice: Creating an AI Student Council

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

As noted at last year’s conference, liberal arts colleges are in a unique and important position to tackle AI and its effect on higher education. A key facet of this position is our ability to encourage critical thinking in our students across a variety of courses, research, and leadership positions on campus. To that end, and as my institutions continues to grapple with its response to...
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Speakers

Alexis Ramsey-Tobienne

Assistant Dean for AI and Learning Integrity, Eckerd College

Alexis E. Ramsey-Tobienne is the Assistant Dean for Artificial Intelligence and Learning Integrity and the Director of Writing at Eckerd College, St.
Petersburg, FL where she helped launch a new AI studies minor. She also oversees the college's Academic Honor Council and serves on the General Education Committe. Her work examines the intersections of Artificial Intelligence, Faculty Development, Academic Integrity, and Writing... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Eckerd College

3:30pm EDT

What If We Trusted Them? Student-Led AI Research as Liberal Arts Pedagogy — Lessons from the LAB

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

What if we trusted them? As institutions scramble to regulate AI, students are positioned as potential cheaters rather than intellectual partners. But Gen Z sentiment toward AI has shifted—many students arrive determined to protect learning, effort, and authentic thinking. This presentation shares what happened when we took that seriously. Over three semesters, we transformed our Language...
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Speakers

Stephanie Kufner

Professor of German |Academic Director Bard LC, Bard College

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:00pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Bard College

3:30pm EDT

Designing Cross-Departmental AI Initiatives for Your Campus

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Navigating generative AI in a liberal arts context requires breaking traditional silos to foster campus-wide dialogue. In this interactive workshop, leaders from Smith College share a collaborative framework developed with the Student Government Association and the Sherrerd Center for Teaching and Learning. This partnership bridges the faculty-student divide through an automated syllabus AI policy...
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Speakers

Jean Ferguson

Director of Learning, Research and Technology, Smith College

Jean Ferguson is the Director of Learning Research and Technology at Smith College, a joint appointment between the Libraries and Information Technology Services. In this role, she leads a team of instructional technologists, media producers, research librarians, and a scholarly communications... Read More →

Travis Grandy

Associate Director, Learning Research & Technology, Smith College

Travis is the Associate Director of Learning Research & Technology at Smith College, and is committed to empowering faculty to learn and adopt new instructional technologies in ways that best meet their teaching objectives. He has experience teaching undergraduate classes in blended... Read More →

Saturday October 17, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Blaustein Hood Room (First floor)

Workshop, Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Innovations

Company Smith College

4:00pm EDT

ChatGBC: An All-Campus, Secure, Affordable(?) OpenWebUI/OpenRouter-Based AI Hub

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT

Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

In a world where students are increasingly expected to graduate with AI experience, providing equitable, affordable and safe access to AI models is becoming a tricky problem for colleges and universities. This session will cover the creation of ChatGBC, Gettysburg College's OpenWebUI/OpenRouter based AI hub. ChatGBC gives all campus members access to multiple AI models plus a built in...
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Speakers

Eric Remy

Gettysburg College

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Shain Library Chu Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Gettysburg College

4:00pm EDT

Student Involvement in AI Curriculum Development

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT

Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, liberal arts institutions face a pressing challenge: how do we swiftly update our curricula to meet the demands of students, parents, and employers across nearly all academic domains? Traditional curriculum development can be slow, but the pace of AI requires agility. A solution is an underutilized resource: our students. They bring unique expertise and...
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Speakers

Willie Wilson

Associate Professor of Computer Science, Franklin & Marshall College

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Blaustein Ernst Room (First floor)

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Franklin & Marshall College

4:00pm EDT

The AI Culture Question: What Happens When One Department Decides to Lead?

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT

Blaustein 210

When AI arrived on campus, most institutions responded the same way: individual faculty experimenting in isolation, policy committees deliberating, and a general sense of productive chaos. At Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the Digital Learning Center took a different path: restructuring one role to make AI integration its central focus, then building outward from there. In this...
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Speakers

Sarah Gobe

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:00pm - 4:30pm EDT
Blaustein 210

Teach the Room, Pedagogical Practice & The Human Element

Company Hobart and William Smith Colleges

4:30pm EDT

Closing Session

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT

Crozier-Williams 1962 Room

Closing reflection and Synthesis

Saturday October 17, 2026 4:30pm - 5:00pm EDT
Crozier-Williams 1962 Room