March 14, 2023 marked the beginning of a new era: Chat GPT-4 was released, fundamentally changing the way humans relate to language. In this talk, Professor Park will explore the implications of this pivotal moment. She will consider AI’s impact on the production of works of fiction and on creativity more broadly. Questions to be explored include: Does AI-informed writing have the potential to supplant traditional novel writing? In what ways can AI innovate creativity? ...

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night begins with a shipwreck, a violent birth onto unknown shores that separates orphaned twins on a journey to nowhere. The turbulent sea visualizes an environment of passages–into adulthood, towards sexual identity, and in search of new attachments and communities of belonging. Twelfth Night is a play about transitions and transitioning, about passages and passing. What skills, virtues, and capacities do the twins need to find their way along the shoreline of life, ...

Abduweli Ayup is a Uyghur linguist, educator, activist, and poet, originally from the Uyghur region of northwest China but currently based in Norway. His work came to international attention in 2013 when he was arrested on charges of “inciting separatism” after opening Uyghur-language kindergartens in his hometown and the provincial capital. After international outcry resulted in his release 15 months later, he left China and settled in Norway. He has published Uyghur-language textbooks for children ...