This project aims to achieve a better understanding of the applicability, potentials, and limitations of AI-based text generators in the Humanities, in Border Studies, and in Cultural Studies. By integrating the usage of artificial intelligence into the university classroom, the project team explores linguistic, social, and cultural boundaries that AI text generators create and/or help to overcome, as well as the possible reinforcement of existing social inequalities caused by AI.  Learning about and with AI text generators brings to the fore the crosslinguistic performance of AI, the performance of AI across language borders including different sociolinguistic varieties, as well as the biased performance of AI in terms of race, class, gender, etc.

The Project “AI Across Borders” headed by Prof. Astrid M. Fellner and Eva Nossem is currently implemented by a team of scholars at the UniGR-Center for Border Studies and the department of English and American Studies at Saarland University within the “Digital Teaching Plug-in” (DaTa-Pin) project at Saarland University.

17 October 2023

Eva Nossem, Astrid Fellner, Svitlana Kot, and Yuliya Stodolinska participated in a poster session at the DaTa-Pin conference on Innovative Teaching at Saarland University and shared insight into the work in the AI Across Borders project.

21 September 2023

Yuliya Stodolinska, Eva Nossem, and Astrid Fellner gave a talk entitled "Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Challenges of the Future," in which they presented the challenges of integrating AI into teaching during the DEFEP conference "Transformations of Personality, Society, and the Labor Market: Future Challenges and Impact on Education" at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (hybrid).

13 July 2023

Eva Nossem and Svitlana Kot gave a talk entitled "Presentation of Best Practice Examples: Case Study "AI Across Borders: Integrating ChatGPT into Teaching," in which they presented the work of the AI Across Borders project during the DEFEP Study Visit at Saarland University.

Winter Semester 2023-24

This seminar is situated in the broad field of sociolinguistics, i.e. the study of the relationship between language and society, drawing also on the theories of Gender, Queer, and Cultural Studies. As Fishman put it, sociolinguistics deals with “who speaks (or writes) what language (or what language variety) to whom and when and to what end” (1972: 46). In this seminar we examine the role of language in a variety of social contexts in order to develop insights into how language works and how it can be used to signal identities and to convey social meaning. We investigate the positioning of categories such as race, class, and gender in social and historical contexts and analyze how individuals negotiate these positionings. This class focuses on linguistic variation in a two-fold way, i.e. by focusing both on language use and on the user. Students will learn the basic terminology and main strands of sociolinguistic research; classic approaches in sociolinguistics will be complemented by more recent research. By integrating AI tools like ChatGPT in our class, students can carve out language patterns and trends, thus enriching their understanding of the complex interplay between language and society.

References:

Eckert, Penelope. 2012. Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology. 41. 87-100.

Eckert, Penelope. 2018. Meaning and Linguistic Variation: The Third Wave in Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Holmes, Janet & Nick Wilson. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 5^th ed. New York: Routledge.

Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2006. Introducing Sociolinguistics. London: Routledge.

Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. 4^th ed. London: Penguin.

Winter Semester 2023-24

This course explores the intersections of race, gender, and class in the culture of the digital age. It critically examines the ways in which technology, digital platforms, and online spaces impact social identities and inequalities. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the course aims to foster an understanding of how race, gender, and class dynamics shape and are shaped by digital practices, representation, and power structures. This will require investigations of diverse cultural arenas and media, among them music, film, television, and everyday lived experience as they are circulated in the digital spaces. Students will be assessed on their participation in classroom discussions, a team presentation and work on the e-learning platform OLAT. The course will use ChatGPT in addition to conventional classroom discussions to enhance student participation and offer a dynamic platform for examining racial, gender, and class issues outside of the physical classroom. Students can hone their critical thinking abilities by interacting with ChatGPT and participating in discussions, examining biases, and challenging presumptions in the online environment. In order to promote a deeper knowledge of the impacts of race, gender, and class in digital contexts, they can investigate the ethical implications of AI technology and participate in discussions about responsible AI use.