Unpacking the Black Box: Critical AI Literacies for Arts Education

TitleUnpacking the Black Box: Critical AI Literacies for Arts Education
Faculty/College/UnitArts
StatusActive
Duration2 Year
Initiation04/01/2025
Project Summary

*Special Call: GenAI Collaborative Cluster Grants*

This project is developing and piloting a set of discipline-specific educational modules designed to demystify AI for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts. The emphasis is on what skills we’re teaching our students, not tools to change the way students learn. These modules show students that AI tools can be used to better understand their discipline, and why a critical understanding of these tools is necessary to use them well. It will also help faculty learn how to implement these tools in the classroom at-scale. In these modules, students undertake small, discipline-specific projects that use AI tools to address pertinent questions or challenges in their fields. Modules also include a theoretical component with detailed, but non-technical, explanations of how these tools are constructed and function and how they can be applied in academic research and industry, as well as critical discussion of their development and use.

Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2025/2026
Year 1: Project TypeLarge TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorLaura Nelson
Year 1: Funded Amount85,087
Year 1: Team Members

Laura Nelson, Associate Professor / Director, Centre for Computational Social Science, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Jonathan Graves, Associate Professor of Teaching / Director, Undergraduate Studies (Curriculum and Students), Economics, Faculty of Arts
Ekatarina Grguric, Digital Scholarship Librarian, UBC Library Research Commons

Faculty Partners for Disciplinary Pilot Courses and Development Consultants:

John Christopoulos, Associate Professor / Undergraduate Chair, History, Faculty of Arts
Silvia Bartolic, Associate Professor of Teaching / Undergraduate Chair, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Fatemeh Salehian Kia, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Information, Faculty of Arts
Erin Fields, Open Education and Scholarly Communications Librarian, UBC Library

Year 2: Project YearYear 2
Year 2: Funding Year2026/2027
Year 2: Project TypeLarge TLEF
Year 2: Principal InvestigatorLaura Nelson
Year 2: Funded Amount84,571
Year 2: Team Members

Laura Nelson, Associate Professor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Jonathan Graves, Associate Professor of Teaching / Director, Undergraduate Studies (Curriculum and Students), Economics, Faculty of Arts
Ekatarina Grguric, Digital Scholarship Librarian, UBC Library Research Commons

Faculty Partners for Disciplinary Pilot Courses and Development Consultants:

John Christopoulos, Associate Professor / Undergraduate Chair, History, Faculty of Arts
Silvia Bartolic, Associate Professor of Teaching / Undergraduate Chair, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Fatemeh Salehian Kia, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Information, Faculty of Arts
Erin Fields, Open Education and Scholarly Communications Librarian, UBC Library

Research Associate:

Trish Varao-Sousa, Evaluation and Research Consultant, Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology