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The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

What Can Science Fiction Teach Us About AI?

Alexis Lothian developed the 300-level course “Artificial Intelligence Otherwise” with support from a seed grant from the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland.

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American Studies, Art, Art History and Archaeology, Classics, College of Arts and Humanities, Communication, English, History, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies, Linguistics, Philosophy, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, School of Music, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

2026 ARHU Commencement: Undergraduate Ceremony

We look forward to celebrating the important milestone of commencement with our graduates, their families and friends and our faculty and staff.

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Arts for All, English

How Stories Can Help Us Face Climate Change

Doctoral student Rashi Maheshwari discusses why literature, art and community matter in an era of environmental crisis.

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Whatever your interests and aspirations, ARHU is committed to providing the knowledge, skills and opportunities all our students need to write their own stories and chart their own paths.

"In ARHU, you’re learning about how people interact with the world and each other. My goal is to build things that people are going to use. Just technology knowledge can only go so far. You have to understand how people are going to use them to be truly successful."

Ozzie Fallick '14, Software Engineer, Google
Linguistics

"Cross-cultural communication is one of the most important skills that I learned at ARHU, and I use it to engage and inform the community in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean about our events, exchanges and any other information that supports our key policy priorities in the region. ARHU gave me the tools to understand why in diplomacy, it’s as much about what you say as how you say it."

Krystle Norman '08, Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Department of State
Spanish and Portuguese

"I had always loved art, but I never knew you could make a career out of it until I studied abroad in Rome. There, I took a full course load of art courses and learned all about the factors of being an art professional. It was life-changing. Now I feel lucky that I’m doing something that I’m so passionate about."

Laura Sheridan Raiffe '09, Regional Account Manager, Christie's Fine Arts
Art History and Archaeology

"One of the most important things I got out of my ARHU experience is my ability to parse arguments, think critically and see multiple sides of an issue. Being in law school, it’s important to do that—it’s a skill I use every day. Not a class goes by, not a case gets read that this skill doesn’t come into play."

AJ Clayborne '13, Student, Harvard Law School
English

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In the new course “Artificial Intelligence Otherwise,” Associate Professor Alexis Lothian in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is using science fiction to help students examine power, injustice and exploitation in the AI era. The course was developed with support from a seed-grant program administered by the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). “I find science fiction incredibly valuable as a tool for thinking,” said Lothian. “Sometimes when you get to really immerse in a different world, you come out with a lens that lets you look at the real world in a slightly different way.” Students begin with foundational works such as Karel Čapek’s influential 1920 play “Rossum’s Universal Robots” (“R.U.R.”), which introduced the word “robot” to the world (from the Czech robota, meaning forced labor or servitude). In the play, artificial workers are created to labor cheaply and efficiently before eventually rebelling against their human creators. For students in Lothian’s class, the century-old story is a reminder that concerns about jobs being automated, workers being pushed to do more for less and people being treated like machines predate today’s AI tools. Students were especially struck, she said, by the play’s premise that the best kind of worker is simply that which is cheapest. “When they read that, they were like, ‘This is exactly what’s happening now,’” Lothian said. Read more at the link in our bio.
From the classroom to the Metro platform! Students in Professor of Art Brandon Donahue-Shipp's "Paint on Site Course brought a 200-foot mural to life at the College Park–University of Maryland station, translating research, collaboration and creative vision into a public work of art. Inspired by local history, ecology and movement, the mural reflects the many paths that connect people to College Park every day. In partnership with WMATA, this project turns this transit space into a shared cultural experience.
We are looking forward to our commencement ceremonies on May 19th and 20th and hope you'll join us! We are delighted to have Jason Reynolds as our undergraduate commencement speaker. Jason Reynolds is an award-winning, internationally-celebrated author of more than 20 young adult books, including “Long Way Down,” “Ghost” and “Look Both Ways.” He focuses on creating literature where young people can see themselves, often drawing from his own experiences. In addition to numerous book awards, he was the 2020-2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a 2024 MacArthur Fellow. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds graduated with a degree in English from the University of Maryland in 2005. He is on the faculty of Lesley University’s Writing for Young People MFA Program. Explore his website jasonwritesbooks.com. For more details about our commencement ceremonies, visit the link in our profile.

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