Events and Opportunities

Writing Pedagogy Lunch: Helping Students Balance Generative AI Use, Writing, & Critical Thinking

Research has started to show there are cognitive costs to high levels of generative AI use, particularly for students’ writing and critical thinking abilities. How can faculty decide whether and when to integrate generative AI tools into their classes? This workshop will briefly discuss recent research and provide a framework for thinking about how to maintain cognitive engagement and generative AI tool use for writing and critical thinking.

Facilitator: Stacey Sheriff (Writing Dept.)

Date: Wednesday, March 11 

Time: 12:00-1:00pm (It’s okay to arrive a little late/leave early for your class!) 

Location:Robins Room – Roberts Building

Registration (includes buffet lunch): https://forms.gle/Mq8oADoJNnQDtvNa9 

Colby Sponsors: Writing Department 

For questions, contact Stacey Sheriff (ssheriff@colby.edu)

Center for Teaching and Learning & Davis Institute for AI – Share a Little, Learn a Lot: Teaching in the Age of AI (Roundtable)

Whether you’re incorporating AI into your curriculum, adapting pre-existing assignments, or not sure what the best routes for your classes are, your perspective is essential to cultivating community wisdom around AI at Colby. Join your colleagues for a casual roundtable to talk about what’s on your mind. Share a little, learn a lot. No preparation required. 

Dates, Times, Location 

Wednesday, March 18, 12-1pm, Hurd Room (Roberts 111C) – Lunch provided!

Thursday, April 2, 12-1pm, Camp Room (Dana 044) – Lunch provided!

Register here

Sponsors: Center for Teaching and Learning & Davis Institute for AI

For questions contact: Jordan Troisi (jdtroisi@colby.edu) or Ryan Bloom (ebloom@colby.edu)

[DavisAI] March MuleChat Theme: AI & Society

Living in a world where our works are constantly assessed against grades, leaderboard, KPIs, etc., we are often reduced to dominant criteria that presumes a singular narrative of “success”. Alongside this narrative, the emergence of AI offers a shortcut for fast answers, with the potential to accelerate conventional achievements at the  risk of jeopardizing independent thinking, judgement, and active engagement with our surroundings. 

Drawing inspiration from neuroscience concepts of hollowed/fortified mind and social theories such as Foucault’s “panopticon,” this MuleChat session will engage you in simulations that make explicit the scenario of being assessed and interacting without pondering. Through these exercises, we will experience and reflect on the shifts in our behavior and thinking patterns under such conditions. Some questions to reflect upon include:

• How does interaction differ when engaging with audiences that “hear” versus those that do not?

• How do our behaviors shift when we are consciously observed or assessed?

• Does AI stifle our perspectives or widen our understanding of the world?

• What implications for an AI-integrated society can we draw from this experience?

By participating in a series of interrogation and defense tasks, we hope to inspire reflections on how we live together in an atomized and digital world, with a vision to incentivize nourishment of critical thinking necessary to navigate through this radical transformation.

Looking Ahead: To analyze and engage with the tangible world, DavisAI and the Statistics Department will co-host the 2026 DataFest, where data literate and critical minds can collaboratively diagnose and propose solutions to concrete social challenges. Sharpen your critical eye in March, and apply it to the real world in April!!

[DavisAI] Interdisciplinary Summer Bridges Program

DavisAI Interdisciplinary Summer Bridges Program is now live on Handshake and accepting applications! It is a paid eight-week program where students can learn AI fundamentals during phase one and turn ideas into practice during phase two. 

No coding experience required! All majors & year levels up to juniors are welcomed!

Application Deadline: Monday, March 16, 2026

Contact: DavisAI at davisaiadmin@colby.edu

[DavisAI] Call for work: Journal of Writing With and About AI

The Journal of Writing With and About AI (JWAI), is an annual online journal published by the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Colby College (DavisAI).

JWAI’s mission is to engage the Colby community in critical AI literacy through creative and scholarly writing. Published by DavisAI, the journal features works that investigate and examine the changing natures of human-machine interactions through experimentation and critical reflection.

Colby College students, staff, and faculty are welcome to submit to our third issue from January 1–May 15, 2026. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Find our full submission guidelines, including how to submit, here.

Contact: DavisAI at davisaiadmin@colby.edu

[DavisAI] Elevate Your AI Skills this January and Spring with MuleChat!

Whether you’re curious, skeptical, or ready to build, join us for a personalized, one-on-one MuleChat session. This is a judgment-free zone designed for you to test the waters, explore new ideas, and understand both the potential and limitations of AI tools in a low-pressure setting. No question is too basic or too advanced—we will meet you wherever you are!

January and Spring 2026 Semester Focus:

• January — New Year, New Skills: Build Your AI Learning Partner: Create your own custom AI assistant to boost your learning!

• February — Art & Algorithms: Unpack the ethical and technical intricacies of AI-generated art.

• March — AI x Data Science: Navigate efficient workflow chains and the limitations of AI-backed data analysis.

• April — Poetry & AI: Dig into the technical limitations and creative opportunities of using generative AI in a poetic practice.

• May — To Summer & Beyond: Explore AI after Colby and over the summer—what will you create?

Ready to make AI work for you? 

Sign up HERE or scan the QR code in the poster.

Note: After filling out the brief form to share your interests, you will find a link on the confirmation page to select your desired appointment time.

Contact: DavisAI at davisaiadmin@colby.edu