Faculty Frontiers

“The Last Human Question” with Josh Fairfield, William Donald Bain Family Professor of Law (January 21)

The true risk of AI is not that the toasters will rise up. It is that artificial intelligence will be competent to perform human tasks and indifferent to human welfare. The risk is that we will be outcompeted by generative automated processes that create output similar to ours (although never the same) but which need none of the outputs of the economy for food, shelter, or human flourishing. Further, a more precise and existential threat is that generative AI will mute humanity’s evolutionary superpower, our ability to generate new meanings and systems of meaning by collaboratively speaking with one another. We will lose our ability to coordinate through the medium of meaning, culture, and language as generative AI spams the channel, drowning out human voices and human-constructed meaning.

“A Day in Early Modern Europe” with George Bent, The Sidney Gause Childress Professor of Art History, and Erich Uffelman, Bentley Professor of Chemistry (January 28)

Erich Uffelman and George Bent (both of whom began their W&L careers on the same day in 1993) have collaborated on research projects that revolve around the analysis of paintings produced in Europe between 1350 and 1700. By employing a mixture of their scholarly work and teaching expertise, each will offer a glimpse of the quotidian experiences of people in Italy and the Netherlands during the early modern period. Elements of art history, chemical analysis, and digital technology will be combined to help us dig deeply into the objects and images that confronted viewers, the urban environment in which they were seen, and the haptic experiences that formed their sensory world.

“You Will Never Look at Economics the Same – Ever Again” with Jamie Casey, professor of economics (February 4)

The US Economy has changed dramatically in the past 40 years. Introductory Economics Education has not – we argue it must. In collaboration with Art Goldsmith, the Jackson T. Stephens Professor of Economics, we are leading a project aimed at fundamentally transforming the teaching of introductory economics in higher education. We are motivated to do this since most students avoid introductory economics and those who do enroll are unlikely to continue, which leaves most college graduates with a cursory understanding, at best, of what makes an economy flourish.  Our First-Year Seminar course, which introduces students to the fundamental ideas of economics in the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution, provides a model for the introductory course in economics across the higher education landscape.

“Race and Poverty in America” with Adrienne Jones, DeLaney Center Postdoctoral Fellow in Southern Race Relations, Culture and Politics (February 11)

Please note the update of our new speaker! Adrienne Jones will examine the historical and systemic factors that contribute to racial disparities in economic outcomes, offering a thought-provoking analysis of current challenges and potential solutions. This discussion promises to deepen understanding of one of the most pressing issues of our time.

“The Larger World” with Mark Rush, director of International Education and Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Professor of Politics, and Mark Drumbl, Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law and director of the Transnational Law Institute (February 12)

Mark Drumbl and Mark Rush will examine how the unprecedented challenges of the 21st century—climate change, rapid technological advancements, deepening economic inequality, pandemics, and shifting demographics—are transforming democracy and governance. Join us as they delve into how international law must adapt to this new global reality to remain effective and relevant.