Katz Distinguished Lecture: Emily M. Bender, "Resisting Dehumanization in the Age of "AI": The View from the Humanities"
The production and promotion of so-called "AI" technology involves dehumanization on many fronts: the computational metaphor valorizes one kind of cognitive activity as “intelligence,” devaluing many other aspects of human experience while taking an isolating, individualistic view of agency, ignoring the importance of communities and webs of relationships. Meanwhile, the purpose of humans is framed as being labelers of data or interchangeable machine components. Data collected about people is understood as "ground truth" even while it lies about those people, especially marginalized people. In this talk, Bender will explore these processes of dehumanization and the vital role that the humanities have in resisting these trends by painting a deeper and richer picture of what it is to be human.
Emily M. Bender is the Thomas L. and Margo G. Wyckoff Endowed Professor in Linguistics and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Computer Science and the Information School at the University of Washington, where she has…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Kane Hall (KNE). Campus room: 210. Accessibility Contact: Simpson Center, 206.543.3920, schadmin@uw.edu. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM.
LSJ Honors Workshop
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Smith Hall (SMI). Campus room: Smith Hall M261 LSJ Conference Room. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
LSJ Direct-to-Major Workshop
Discuss the direct-to-major pathway for incoming transfer students.
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96202756039. Campus room: Via Zoom. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
For more info visit washington.zoom.us. LSJ Honors Workshop
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Smith Hall (SMI). Campus room: Smith Hall M261 LSJ Conference Room. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, February 20, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Lecture: Heng-hao Chang, "Post-Colonial Reflections on International Disability Rights: Adaptation and Localization in Taiwan"
Taiwan is a unique site of innovation in disability rights. Despite being barred from becoming a States Party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) according to the diplomatic exclusion faced by Taiwan, it has become a model for the localization of the CRPD through its use “domestic review mechanisms.” Furthermore, Taiwan demonstrates the ways in which fundamental divides within human rights discourse, such as Western individualism and East Asian familialism, can be bridged using strategic adaptation that reimagine disability rights as a post-colonial hybrid.
Heng-hao Chang is a Professor of Sociology and former Dean of the College of Social Sciences at National Taipei University. A dedicated advocate for disability studies and the disability rights movement, Chang is a co-founder and past Chairman of the Taiwan Society for Disability Studies and currently serves as the Executive Editor of the International Journal of Disability and Social Justice.
Event made pos…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Communications Building (CMU). Campus room: 120. Accessibility Contact: Simpson Center for the Humanities, 206-543-3920, schadmin@uw.edu. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, February 26, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
LSJ Admissions Workshop
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96202756039. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
LSJ Admissions Workshop
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Smith Hall (SMI). Campus room: Smith M261. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM.
LSJ Direct-to-Major Workshop
Discuss the direct-to-major pathway for incoming transfer students.
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96202756039. Campus room: Via Zoom. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM.
For more info visit washington.zoom.us. Digital/Data Humanities Lecture: Tonia Sutherland, "Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife"
In this talk, Resurrecting the Black Body, Sutherland examines the consequences of digitally raising the dead. Attending to the violent deaths of Black Americans–and the records that document them–from slavery through the present, Sutherland explores media evidence, digital acts of remembering, and the rights and desires of humans to be forgotten.
Tonia Sutherland is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife (University of California Press, 2023). In addition to being the Founder and Director of PENDULUM and The Black Memory Collective. She also serves as Co-Director of the Community Archives Lab at UCLA and Co-Founder and Co-Director of AfterLab at the University of Washington Information School.
Event made possible by the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities. This event is free and open to the…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Henry Art Gallery (HAG). Accessibility Contact: Simpson Center for the Humanities, 206-543-3920, schadmin@uw.edu. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
LSJ Admissions Workshop
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Smith Hall (SMI). Campus room: Smith M261. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM.
LSJ Direct-to-Major Workshop
Discuss the direct-to-major pathway for incoming transfer students.
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96202756039. Campus room: Via Zoom. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
For more info visit washington.zoom.us. LSJ Admissions Workshop
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96202756039. Accessibility Contact: Kat Eli. Event Types: Academics.
Monday, April 6, 2026, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM.