Ethics, AI, and the Public Humanities Speaker Series
Presented by NCPH and the American Conservation Experience (ACE)
Registration: https://community.ncph.org/event/AIHumanities
Of the jobs most threatened by artificial intelligence, Microsoft has named “Historian” as number two on their list. In their “Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education” (August 5, 2025), the American Historical Association acknowledges the power of AI, yet recognizes that its utility cannot replace our ability as historians to “appreciate the complexity of our shared past and what it means to be human.” In this four-part speaker series, the National Council on Public History (NCPH) and the American Conservation Experience (ACE) Mellon Humanities Program will bring together experts to help us consider the ways that artificial intelligence is reshaping our world and our work.
As generative AI (colloquially, “gen AI”) technology rapidly improves, it becomes more difficult to detect it, understand it, and manage its responsible and ethical use. This is especially critical for public historians and public humanists, whom the public trusts to share information that is ethical, factual, and fundamentally human. We must get our heads around this technology and how it impacts the work we do, and we must do it now.
In four parts, this series will 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 here 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: Ken Axford, WBFO Project Archivist, University at Buffalo Libraries
Hope Dunbar, University Archivist, University at Buffalo Libraries
Jesse Johnston, School of Information, University of Michigan
Part 4: AI and History Education
Tuesday, 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