INVITATION: Join us for the 4th MIT GHI Conference on “STEMAH = The University of the Future” on November 20/21 (KST)

Opening Remarks

• Hyokkey Song (Head of Institute for Global Humanities Research and Collaboration, Korea University)
• Wiebke Denecke (Faculty Lead of the MIT Global Humanities Initiative)
• 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