Clarkson University
Fall 2023 DavidA.Walsh‘67
Arts & Sciences Seminar Series
Friday, September 15th at 12pm
Room: Snell 177 & on Zoom, pre-register here:
https://clarkson.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUvcuuorD0qE9Z9nQbMDLBxj7av9sqtBsdg
Do Chatbots Dream in Indonesian?
Anthropology, Area Studies and AI
Following Philip K. Dick’s memorable work, Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?, I pose this question about the virtual
interlocutors (Chat GPT et al.) who promise (or threaten) to
replace us as writers—both as instructors and as students. Can
anthropology and area studies—Indonesian Studies, in particular—
articulate these anxieties, and address our aspirations about
androids in the academy?
In this talk, I draw on the history of social sciences and second language learning
funded by the Department of Education Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies
program begun in 1958, for the study of ‘lesser taught’ languages, literature, and
translation in higher education in the U.S., to suggest that it can. I also turn to
science fiction, as a genre of the same era, to consider the work it can do to help us
in the contemporary moment of AI conversations, not just with and about
technology, but also with those whose languages we have not yet begun to speak,
nor understand.
G.G. Weix is Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies at The University
of Montana. Since 2019, she serves as vice-president of AIFIS, the American Institute for
Indonesian Studies, an overseas research institute center in Jakarta and Ithaca, New York.
She is currently doing research and archival documentation of area studies and lesser-taught
languages in the U.S.
The Arts & Sciences Seminar Series is a weekly colloquium series that has been supported
by the School of Arts & Sciences Advisory Council atClarkson University especially through
generous gifts from David A. Walsh ‘67. Please contact ansseminar@clarkson.edu
SA&S 300: Arts and Sciences Seminaris a one credit course intended to foster an
interdisciplinary outlook in undergraduates majoring in the School of Arts and Sciences.
