PHILOSOPHY, ENGLISH — During “AI and the Humanities,” a panel discussion featuring professors from the University of Oregon explored the impact of AI. The panel was sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center as part of the center’s 40th anniversary events on the topic of “Humanities Matter(s).” From their in-depth discussion, came five key takeaways about AI.

PHILOSOPHY - Pigeons and AI share something in common: They can’t care about patients. In Ramón Alvarado’s latest paper published in the American Journal of Bioethics, he and co-author Nicolae Morar, a bioethicist and environmental philosopher at the UO, underscore that health care isn’t just about finding results. It's about actually caring for patients. That’s a level of engagement from providers not easily replicated by a machine.

Through fellowships, the Oregon Humanities Center at the University of Oregon works to promote innovative humanities research produced by faculty members at the UO. The fellowships are for tenure-track faculty and are awarded on an annual basis. The 2025-26 fellows include CAS faculty members in the Divisions of Humanities and Social Sciences.

PHILOSOPHY - Camisha Russell, an associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Oregon, has been named a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow  for 2024. Each year, approximately 12 scholars are selected for the prize, and Russell is the UO’s first faculty member to receive this honor.

ECONOMICS, GLOBAL STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICAL SCIENCE - Two College of Arts and Sciences students — one attending an immersive Mandarin language study abroad and the other serving on a state of Oregon board on climate change and exploring Peru — are having life-transforming experiences.

INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY - Sensors collect data on all sorts of information, including gait consistency, body temperature, heart rate, and more. But where is the ethical line between using sensor data to help an athlete improve their performance—and even avoid injury—and that same data being used to sideline them or used as surveillance of behavior?

ENGLISH, PHILOSOPHY - Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, public awareness of artificial intelligence has exploded, accelerating the technology’s inevitable creep into everyday life. In the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, where AI has made its way into both classrooms and research labs, faculty members are grappling with its impact on student learning even as they explore its vast potential in their research.

PHILOSOPHY - With violence against women on the rise in many Latin American countries, a UO philosophy professor is working to make feminine genocide a recognized crime throughout Mexico. Recently, she urged Mexican consulates around the world to help eliminate violence against women and girls by recognizing and enforcing femigenocidio as a federal crime.

GEOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHY, ROMANCE LANGUAGES - Three CAS faculty members—Mark Carey, Diana Garvin, and Colin Koopman—were awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

PHILOSOPHY - Barbara Muraca, a philosophy associate professor, participated in United Nations-organized research focused on “relational values” between humans and nature. She hopes to emphasize the importance of viewing humans and nature as connected rather than separate entities. Muraca and a team of academics appear as authors in an article published in the August 2023 issue of Nature.

PHILOSOPHY, SOCIOLOGY - Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy will have a three-day 40th-anniversary conference at the University of Oregon, which runs from Wednesday, Sept. 6 through Friday, Sept. 9. The conference, titled Hypatia’s Promise: Opening the Archives, Charting Feminist Futures, will look back at the journal’s early days, as well as host panels featuring academics from around the US and Latin America and celebrate the archive at the UO.

CREATIVE WRITING, PHILOSOPHY - Two professors — Garrett Hongo and Colin Koopman — have been named 2023 Presidential Fellows in Arts and Humanities. They'll use the funding to work on book projects.

PHILOSOPHY — Appearing on an NPR-affiliate radio forum, Assistant Professor Ramón Alvarado and Senior Instructor Phil Colbert, as well as College of Law Clinical Professor Rebekah Hanley and local business owner Todd Edman, discussed AI technologies.

PHILOSOPHY, COMPUTER SCIENCE - Four University of Oregon faculty members will chat about the rise of chatbots and artificial intelligence at an upcoming interactive forum Thursday, May 11.

PHILOSOPHY - In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, Colin Koopman looks at how real lives are being overtaken by their digital lives.