The courses below are supported by the HUMAN Grant for the 2025-2026 academic year.
First Year Studies courses
FIYS 115: Climate Change Across Disciplines
Todd Beer
This course explores arguably the most pressing issue of our time: climate change. While we examine the fundamental physical science of global warming, the focus is on the social, cultural, political, economic, ethical, and psychological perspectives of climate change. Through this variety of disciplinary lenses, we critically examine the predicted and current consequences of climate change and how it impacts groups of people here and around the world. Our analysis includes the global, national, and local political efforts made to address and, for some, deny the problem. We will also explore both the consequences of AI's growing impact on our energy sector and AI's potential to help us solve the climate crisis. The class examines how our society is generating the problem and if technological advancement is enough to solve it or if greater social/political change is necessary.
FIYS 116: Reimagining the Stage: AI and the Performing Arts
Bob Knuth
This course explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and the performing arts. Students examine the potential of AI as a creative tool, analyzing its applications in areas such as playwriting, design, marketing and virtual reality performances. The course delves into the ethical implications of AI, including its impact on human creativity and the future of the industry. Through a combination of conceptual analysis, practical experimentation, and critical discussion, students develop a nuanced understanding of the opportunities and challenges presented by AI in the performing arts.
FIYS 121: Photographic Modernis
Maggie Hazard
This course focuses on the histories and theories of photography from roughly 1890 to 1945 (the modernist period). Using primary and secondary sources class discussions, exercises, and writing assignments the course considers the innovations of the photographic medium as well as the ways in which photography intersects with cultural and social ideas and technologies of the period. Through the work of modernist photographers from Alfred Stieglitz to Henri Cartier-Bresson, we explore the social and cultural impact of photography and the many ways in which photographic material frames and helps us to understand the world historically and today. This course interrogates issues surrounding the development of AI technology relative to historic photographs, including the ethics of photographic production, manipulation, and dissemination using AI. AI specific discussions might include the use of AI technology on photographs, the practice of manipulating historic photographs with AI technology, and creating AI images that purport to be from time periods well before this technology existed.
FIYS 126: Becoming Human in the Age of AI
Aaron Greenberg
Becoming Human in the Age of AI: As artificial intelligence advances, the boundaries between human and machine blur, challenging our understanding of what it means to be human. This course explores cultural, ethical, and philosophical questions around AI, drawing on Western, Indigenous, African, Asian, and other perspectives to examine human identity, creativity, work, and the environment in an AI-driven world. Through global case studies and ethical frameworks, students investigate how diverse cultural traditions shape approaches to AI’s impact on privacy, intellectual property, and sustainability. Engaging with AI’s real-world applications in various cultural settings—such as Confucianism, Ubuntu, Indigenous movements for data sovereignty, and Japan’s AI-driven elder care—students gain a deeper, global perspective on humanity’s evolving relationship with intelligent technology.
FIYS 161: Narrative and Knowledge Production: Storytelling, Identity, and the Rhetorical Impact of Artificial Intelligence
Daniel Henke
Telling stories is a fundamental part of being human. We share stories of our families, friends, and experiences. We examine religious texts, myths, folklore, and the media for insight into ourselves and others. We create, share, and explore internal narratives to better make sense of the world. We engage with chatbots to conceptualize ontological concepts. However, the significance of storytelling is often undervalued in the world of academic knowledge production. In this class, we examine narrative and how it is used to offer legitimacy for our actions and beliefs. Moreover, we look closely at narrative’s relationship to knowledge production and how narrative is interwoven with facets of identity, such as race, gender, sexuality, social class, ability, and artificial intelligence. We read critical, feminist, working class, and queer theory and examine how writers from nondominant identities use narrative to articulate their own complex position in relation to education and culture. We examine artificial intelligence rhetoric and how advanced machines mimic and complicate the stories we tell ourselves and others. This course demonstrates that stories are both ubiquitous and integral in knowledge production and that they can both subvert and reinforce the status quo.
FIYS 189: Digital Dawn: Hum, Cyberspace & AI
Justin Kee
(Digital Dawn: Humanity, Cyberspace, and the Rise of Artificial Intelligence) This course explores the development of cyberspace, the migration of human activity to its digital platforms, and the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the “first intelligent creations” that reside entirely in a digital space. We will explore new and pressing questions about human identity and the necessary responses caused by AI's rapid advancement. The course will tackle the complexities arising from AI’s growing influence in the real world, including a range of emerging issues, regulatory concerns, and policy-making challenges. We will trace the historical trajectory of generative AI, from its science fiction roots to its connections to remix culture and social media. We will explore everything from advanced deep learning technologies to the creation of AI-generated content and the development of AI as a potential companion for humans. We will highlight the ethical challenges posed by these technologies, with emphasis on equal access to computational resources and inherent biases in AI datasets. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the First Year Studies requirement.)
FIYS 190: Effects of Social Media & AI
David Noskin
Facebook and Tumblr were all the rage in the mid 2010s. Today, it’s TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. Tomorrow, who knows? Just as fast as internet and social media platforms change, so too does our relationship with this technology. Are you as dependent on it as you were in high school? Can your mood change for the better after two minutes on your smartphone? In this course, we examine our social media use from a psychological, social, and ethical perspective. We study the rise of the internet in the 2000s, the effects it has had on teenagers and young adults of intersecting identities, and how we carry those impacts into adulthood. We explore how AI has transformed social media platforms, as algorithms use our data to personalize content but contribute to misinformation and increasing polarization. Ultimately, we work to figure out what it means to ensure that our use of social media and the internet is healthy and productive.
Course enhancements
Art 200: New Media Art and Design
Kimiko Matsumura
New media is at the cutting edge of the production of art and design. But what is it and how does it help shape visual cultures, and societies around the world? This course will take a humanistic, global approach to learning about this dynamic topic. Theories of new media help us understand the technological and information revolution. Art and new media have become integral parts of our changing societies. Theoretical, practical, and cultural ideas such as Postmodernism, the Anthropocene, and Post-humanism are examples of ways to understand the influence of New Media in our world.
ENTP 260: Developing, Protecting and Monetizing Intellectual Property in the Age of AI
Gary Johnson
How does one protect an idea or invention? This course provides the foundations for protecting innovations and inventions (intangible assets) and monetizing those through the sale or license of the asset or through a new venture created to market the asset. Students explore the financial and social impact of each path from the perspective of the creator. Students examine topics such as the ethical and human challenges facing intellectual law and regulation in the age of artificial intelligence (including questions of data bias social impact). This course is taught through case studies, reading, client or student projects, and exposure to industry professionals. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
JOUR 120: Introduction to Journalism
Pamela Ferdinand
Introduction to Journalism presents students with the skills and information that are essential for reliable, accurate, and independent news reporting. This course addresses the fundamental skills associated with journalistic writing and presents students with the essential issues facing journalism today. In addition to writing, this course addresses the laws, ethics, and fundamentals of news literacy, with a keen focus on the critical thinking skills required for news judgment. This class will also address issues related to evolving AI technology, with a range of topics from ethics and bias to AI's potential impact on news production.
PHIL 222: The Humanist Ethics of AI
Justin Kee
(The Humanist Ethics of Artificial Intelligence) This course is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to work effectively with AI in their future careers. It emphasizes the ethical development of AI, the advancement of technology in a manner that is equitable and just, and the importance of fostering meaningful collaborations between humans and AI systems. The curriculum delves into the relationship between AI and the humanistic tradition, drawing from interdisciplinary sources that focus on historical and practical questions, with a strong emphasis on ethics, justice, and fairness. The course explores questions of bias and safety in AI as those issues are connected to the humanist tradition. This course meets the Forester Fundamental technology skills requirement, and students directly use AI technology for a significant portion of their coursework.
PHIL 283: Philosophy of Intelligence
Roshni Patel
This course reflects on the nature of intelligence. What makes a being intelligent? What are the perceptual, analytical, responsive, adaptive, communicative, or other capacities that allow us to determine whether a being is intelligent? We study the possible intelligences of various types of beings, including plants, animals, creatures that exist in collectives, humans, super humans, computers, and networks of machines. We also reflect on the limitations that exist in our ability to determine whether another being is intelligent. Moreover, we consider the biases related to these questions: how does the obsession with intelligence affect our ability to value forms of life different from our own? How do our biases figure into our determinations of what is or is not intelligent? Finally, we consider questions that are becoming increasingly relevant with the acceleration of AI technology: is there an insuperable difference between intelligence in carbon-based natural beings and human-created machines? What sorts of ethical relationships exist between our intelligence and intelligences created by us? This study requires us to reflect on questions related to the philosophy of knowledge, science, disability, nature, morality, and technology. The course proceeds largely as a seminar with discussion focused on selected readings and course materials. No Prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)