Report on the Critical AI Literacy for Reading, Writing, and Languages Workshop
Image of AI and Writing Task Force members with humanities organizations’ representatives. On the left, from the bottom: Anna Mills, Holly Hassel, Joanne Giordano, Judy Ruttenberg, Sherry Wynn Perdue, Matthew Kirschenbaum, and Jen William. On the right, from the top: David Green, Elizabeth Losh, Temptaeous McKoy, Leo Flores, Zhaozhe Wang, Lilian Mina, Antonio Byrd, and Sarah Johnson. Not pictured: Kofi Adisa, Estela Ene, and Alexandria Lockett.
On March 8 and 9th, the AI and Writing Task Force held the Critical AI Literacy for Reading, Writing, and Languages Workshop at the Modern Language Association headquarters in New York City with key representatives from a variety of humanities professional organizations. Some members joined us via Zoom, making this workshop a productive hybrid event. This meeting was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair’s Grant. The following AI and Writing Task Force members participated in the workshop:
- Kofi Adisa, AI and Writing Task Force
- Antonio Byrd, AI and Writing Task Force
- Leonardo Flores, AI and Writing Task Force
- David Green, AI and Writing Task Force
- Holly Hassel, co-chair, AI and Writing Task Force
- Matthew Kirschenbaum, AI and Writing Task Force
- Elizabeth Losh, co-chair, AI and Writing Task Force
- Sarah Z Johnson, AI and Writing Task Force
- Anna Mills, AI and Writing Task Force
The following representatives and their organizations who participated in the workshop included:
- Estela Ene, TESOL International Association
- Joanne Giordano, Chair of the Two-Year College English Association
- Jason Hendrickson and Jervette Ward, College Language Association
- Temptaous Mckoy, Member-At-Large, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
- Lilian Mina, President of Council of Writing Program Administrators
- Sherry Wynn Perdue, President of International Writing Center Association
- Judy Ruttenberg, Association of Research Libraries
- Zhaozhe Wang, past chair of CCCC Second Language Writing Standing Group
- Jen William, Committee Member, Association of Language Departments
Over the course of the task force’s work, members recognized a wider representation of humanities scholars was needed, especially world languages, writing programs, writing centers, technical and professional communication, applied linguistics and TESOL, and information studies. Publishing Working Paper 1 and the subsequent webinar on the paper further reinforced the necessity for wider collaboration with colleagues across subfields and allied fields in English Studies. Inviting others from these subfields would allow us to capture a wider view of how generative AI impacts research and pedagogy and develop a collective response that scholars and teachers could draw on in their local institutional contexts.
The AI and Writing Taskforce met with the above members first online via Zoom on February 2nd and 5th to identify shared priorities, to address the needs of professional organization members, and to develop a plan to create additional resources. After these virtual convenings, the task force analyzed meeting notes and presentations and created a list of priorities. We decided that defining “critical AI literacies” or “AI literacies” had the highest priority. This term has been used frequently in a variety of contexts and defined by individual scholars in other publications, such as Maha Bali’s “Where are the crescents in AI?”
Working Paper 3 will synthesize past and recent scholarship on generative AI, algorithms, and machine learning to outline a theory of critical AI literacy and recommend steps toward praxis. With guidance for students, educators, programs, and institutions. This paper will represent perspectives from professional and technical communication, world languages and literature, composition and rhetoric, library science, and literary studies to offer a wide-ranging conception of AI literacy for MLA and CCCCs constituents and guide their ethical and appropriate approaches to students’ use of AI as tools develop.
During the retreat, the task force and its co-authors began to draft several sections, with a first draft planned to be completed by April 5. After a full review from each represented organization, including MLA and CCCCs, we hope to publish this third working paper over the summer, just in time for a new academic year in the fall.
Holly Hassel (hjhassel[AT]mtu[DOT]edu) and Elizabeth Losh (lizlosh[AT]gmail[DOT]com) chair the Task Force and can be reached for queries about the task force’s work.