4th Annual Conference 2025

Once upon a time the study of the natural, human, and social worlds we inhabit belonged to a unified pursuit of knowledge. The modern birthing of sciences and social sciences from the studia humaniora catalyzed the development of sophisticated and highly specialized disciplinary toolboxes that are vital to the functioning of our complex societies and institutions. Yet, in the face of daunting ecological, political, economic, social and biological global challenges we need to continue our bold disciplinary innovation, while also advancing it by recovering the cross-pollination across all knowledge fields. Together we need to prototype knowledge-to-action systems for social transformation that help us build the University of the Future—a space to produce STEMAH research and curricula oriented towards a compass of human flourishing and planetary stewardship, echoing stemma, our “family tree” of human knowledge.

Join MIT Global Humanities (GHI) and Korea University to imagine what STEMAH could be and do and help build the basis for the new STEMAH pillar to add to GHI’s nine big-challenge research platforms.

Check out our Visual Abstract to get a sense of our scope, goals, and resonance with your interests.

When: November 20-22, 2025

Where: Korea University, Seoul (Hybrid)

Co-hosts: MIT Global Humanities / Korea University Institute for Global Humanities Research and Collaboration/ Korea University Humanities Utmost Sharing System (HUSS)

Opening Remarks

• Hyokkey Song (Head of Institute for Global Humanities Research and Collaboration, Korea University)
• Wiebke Denecke (Faculty Lead of MIT Global Humanities)
• Byeongho Jung (Head of Humanities Utmost Sharing System, Korea University)

Welcoming Remarks

• Seong-Taek YUN (Executive Vice President for Research, Korea University)
• Agustin Rayo (Dean of School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Co-Chair of the MIT Human Insight Collaborative, MIT)

• Fritz Breithaupt (Professor, Department of Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania), “How to Tell Better Stories: Combining Science and Humanities Research” (virtual)
• Devdutt Pattanaik (Mythologist, writer, columnist, illustrator), “Can STEM or AH (Arts & Humanities, Ah!) Reduce Jealousy in the World?”

• Wiebke Denecke (S. C. Fang Professor of Chinese Language and Culture; Professor of East Asian Literatures and Philosophies in the Literature Section, MIT)

• Pattie Maes (Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab), “Will AI Make Us Smarter or Just More Dependent?” (virtual)
• Anaïs Siebers (Ph.D. Student, Institute for Philosophy, University of Bonn), “It Takes Time: On Intelligence and Computation”
• Lana Cook (Associate Director, MIT Systems Awareness Lab), “Cultivating Systems Awareness with AI” (virtual)
• Mikael Jakobsson (Research Scientist, MIT Game Lab), “Games as Gifts of Culture”
• Richard Eberhardt (Program Manager, MIT Game Lab), “Understanding the World through Games and Play”
  *Open Discussion

• Monojit Choudhury (Professor of Natural Language Processing, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence), “AI and Culture – The Many Interactions” (virtual)
• Eugene Chung (Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Korea University), “Language, Empathy, and Flourishing in the Age of AI”
• Nancy Tsai (Postdoctoral Research Scholar, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT), “Stress and the Brain: Language and Perception”
• Sanghoun Song (Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Korea University), “The Stochastic Parrot Speaks Only English” (virtual)
• Jonas Mago (Ph.D. Candidate, Integrative Program in Neuroscience, McGill University), “Neuroscience of Human Flourishing”
• Justus Wachs (Ph.D. Candidate, Integrative Program in Neuroscience, McGill University), “Contemplative Learning for Human Flourishing”
  *Open Discussion

• Shankar Raman (Professor, Literature Section, MIT), Frédéric Jaeck (Associate Professor, Philosophy of Mathematics, University of Aix-Marseilles), “Hamlet’s Dilemma” (virtual)
• Moritz Epple (Ph.D. Candidate, Center for Science and Thought, University of Bonn), “Expanding Views on the Scientific Method”
• Chan Lee (Professor, Department of Philosophy, Korea University), “Can the University Be Free from Money? Knowledge, Capital, and the Public Good”
• Rafal K. Stepien (Research Associate, Austrian Academy of Sciences), “Karma and the Ecology of Care” (virtual)
• Cathy Wang (Assistant Professor, School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Chongqing University), “Cultivating a STEMAH Ecosystem: Buddhist Texts as Seeds & Disciplines as Landscapes”
• Andreas Ohlemacher (Church Executive; Advisor for Ecumenical Theology, the German National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation), “Interconfessional Consultations: Human Resources, Artificial Intelligence, and The Transcendent”
  *Open Discussion

• Michael Stanley-Baker (Assistant Professor of History and Medical Humanities, Nanyang Technological University), “Polyglot Asian Medicine: A Proof of Concept Website for Data Integration between Traditional and Modern Health Systems”
• Thomas Ryan (Assistant Professor, Department of Korean History, Korea University), “The Cheju Uprising (4.3) as World Memory: Violence, Nature, and the Archive”
• Or Porath (Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, Tel Aviv University), “Faith in Ruin: Buddhist Responses to Ecological Crisis” (virtual)
• Helen Shin (Associate Professor, College of Media & Communication, Korea University), “Intelligence from Unintelligence: Rethinking Knowledge, Creativity, and AI in the Age of Scaling Up”
• Solmi Chung (Assistant Professor, Department of Sinographic Literatures, Korea University), “Imagining the Beggar Ghost: Ritual, Calamity, and Poverty in Cultural Memory”
• Johann Noh (Research Professor, Institute for Global Humanities Research and Collaboration, Korea University), “Landscape of Mind: The Old Future of Environmental Understanding”
  *Open Discussion

• MODERATOR: Wiebke Denecke (S. C. Fang Professor of Chinese Language and Culture; Professor of East Asian Literatures and Philosophies in the Literature Section, MIT)
• Youngwoo Kwon (Professor, Department of Philosophy, Korea University)
• Hikyoung Lee (Dean of the College of Liberal Arts; Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Korea University)
• Devdutt Pattanaik (Mythologist, writer, columnist, illustrator)
• Helen Shin (Associate Professor, College of Media & Communication, Korea University)

• 10:20-10:30 Introduction to the KU Institute for Global Humanities Research and Collaboration
• 10:30-11:20 Tools for Human Flourishing (Contemplative Practices, Neuroscience & AI) and Traditional Medicines strategy meeting
• 11:20-12:10 Governance Pillar and Diplomacy projects planning meeting
• 12:10-12:40 Coffee & Snack Break
• 12:40-13:30 Public Literacies Hub Brainstorming
• 13:30-14:00 STEMAH Pillar Brainstorming (FOR ALL GHI MEMBERS & CONFERENCE GUESTS)
• 14:00-14:50 Atlas of Human Literatures strategy meeting (with World Poetries of the Neighborhood project)
• 14:50-15:40 Philology 2.0 2026 planning meeting

For further information, please feel free to contact Johann Noh, the program coordinator of GHI at noh1214@mit.edu.