Upcoming Ethics, AI, and the Public Humanities Series
Hosted by the National Council on Public History
In four parts, this series presented by NCPH and the American Conservation experience (ACE) will ask experts to help public historians and public humanitarians tackle questions like: what do we mean when we talk about gen AI? How do we recognize it, and what AI tools have potential use cases for the public humanities? How can we ethically engage with generative AI tools as public historians, museum practitioners, writers, archivists, and educators?
For all four events, closed captioning and American Sign Language interpretation will be provided. Registrants will receive resource lists and recordings of the events for which they register. Register for all four events, or choose the ones that are most meaningful to you. This event uses our "pay what you can" model, which allows us to design programming for all members of our community regardless of their financial status; if you can afford to select one of the paid registration tiers, we are deeply grateful for your support in subsidizing free registrations for those who need it most.
Part 1: Defining and Demystifying "AI" and "Machine Learning"
Thursday, January 29, 2026 | 4:00 pm Eastern
Facilitator: Jessica Dauterive, Program Manager, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, and Digital Humanities Consultant, ACE
Speakers: Zoe LeBlanc, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jeri Wieringa, Assistant Director, Center for Digital Humanities at Princeton University
Part 2: The Ethics of AI: What's the Harm?
Thursday, February 12, 2026 | 12:00 pm Eastern
Facilitator: Jessica Dauterive, Program Manager, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, and Digital Humanities Consultant, ACE
Speakers: Adio-Adet Dinika, Research Fellow, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR) Institute
Adrienne Williams, Research Fellow, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR) Institute; Public Voices Fellow, The OpEd Project; activist and organizer
Part 3: Ethical AI Use in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM)
Thursday, February 26, 2026 | 2:00 pm Eastern
Facilitator: Angela Fritz, School of Library and Information Science, University of Iowa
Speakers: Additional speakers from the upcoming Collections special issue on AI, TBA
Part 4: AI and History Education
March 17, 2026 | 2:00 pm Eastern
Facilitator: Lindsey Passenger Wieck, Director of Public History, St. Mary's University
Speakers: Wendi Manuel-Scott and George Oberle, Center for Mason Legacies, George Mason University
Victoria Sanchez, 6th Grade World Cultures Educator, Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders
Posted: January 7, 2026, 11:36 AM