The Helmerich Browsing Room was filled with activity on Thursday.

Students, faculty and staff took their seats and made room for new arrivals. Attendees pulled out notebooks and held pens at the ready. Conversations quieted as the beginning of the lecture neared.

All were gathered with the same question: what role do the humanities play in an age of AI?

Dr. Sonja Drimmer presented a discussion on how to answer that very question.

An associate professor of the history of art and architecture at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Drimmer spoke about “Future-Proofing the Past: A Political Economy of the Humanities without AI.” It was the keynote lecture of Oklahoma State University’s inaugural Humanities Week.

OSU’s Center for the Humanities strives to highlight humanities research and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the university. Organizing Humanities Week was an extension of this mission.

“We have really good relationships across humanities disciplines at the center,” said Dr. Corinne Schwarz, associate director of the Center for the Humanities. “We have these muscles built on collaboration. We asked ourselves, ‘What would it look like to collaborate over a whole week?’”

The week was packed with events covering all aspects of humanities studies at OSU. Activities included an ekphrastic poetry workshop, a “Brave New World” reading group and a Special Collections & University Archives manuscripts open house. A humanities alumni career panel and a majors, minors and opportunities fair showcased the way an interest in the humanities can be practically implemented in students’ career paths.

“There's a lot of ways to engage, and many of them can be fulfilling and rewarding on a personal level,” said Dr. Jennifer Borland, director of the Center for the Humanities. “They can contribute to professional growth, making a more well-rounded and highly skilled individual after graduation.”

This Humanities Week also sought to place the humanities in the context of an ever-changing technological landscape. Dr. Minsoo Choi, assistant professor of computer science and director of the Immersive Intelligence and Interaction Lab at OSU, gave a lecture exploring the human connection that video games facilitate.

The week culminated in Drimmer’s keynote. She emphasized that sustainability, sympathy and solidarity are crucial in protecting the study of art and history from exploitation and misuse.

“The whole point of being here on this Earth, even together, even as citizens, is to model genuine interaction with one another,” Drimmer said.

Humanities Week reflected this interaction throughout campus. Students from many different colleges, backgrounds and areas of interest were brought together by this celebration of the opportunities by the Center for the Humanities.

This amalgamation of the humanities’ many facets displayed that in a time of technological upheaval, the humanities remain relevant and crucial across disciplines.

Story By: Adrienne Frye | adrienne.frye@okstate.edu