With the start of the new year and upcoming presidential inauguration, we’ve chosen to focus on politics, advocacy and community organizing. At the College of Letters and Science, we’re thinking deeply about these topics and the work of our faculty and lecturers demonstrates just that.
Students in this "Experimental Documentary" class were asked to investigate artificial intelligence. "Ghost AI," a film that grew from that assignment, explores ethical questions around its use, specifically when it comes to duplicating someone's likeness, voice or persona.
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $500,000 grant to launch and fund the UC Davis Center for Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Futures (CAIEF). CAIEF will promote the democratic governance of AI systems by engaging diverse stakeholders in processes of creative worldmaking — crafting the world of tomorrow, together.
Students and recent graduates of the College of Letters and Science discuss the 2024 Film Festival at UC Davis, sharing the inspiration behind their films and the films themselves. The festival is produced by students in “CDM 189: Where Do Films Go: Film Festivals and Distribution,” which is taught by Associate Professor of Cinema and Digital Media Julie Wyman.
A science historian studying the complex history of sociogenomics, a historian revealing the lives of Chilean children during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, and a researcher chronicling the performances of contemporary Black women poets are among this year’s UC Davis recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
