On Artificial Appropriation - AIM Virtual Series

Please join us for the next lecture of the AIM Virtual Series: On Artificial Appropriation: Blackface or Kin? on Tuesday, November 18, from 12:30-1:30pm, featuring Dr. Rianna Walcott, Assistant Professor of Communication and Dr. Jennifer D. Turner, Professor of Literary Education.

Abstract: AI’s audio-visual capacities are increasingly capable of mimicking racial markers. By examining AI-powered performances of identity and ethnicity online, the conversation will explore Black affective responses — from eager adoption, to skeptical engagement, to the refusal of uncanny performances of Blackness without Black embodiment.

Dr. Rianna Walcott is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, and Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab as part of the DISCO Network. An alumna of the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP), Dr. Walcott earned her PhD in Digital Humanities at King's College London for her research on Black (and specifically Black British) mediated communication, locating the evolution of a hybrid ‘Black British’ identity against the wider Black diaspora. She combines digital research, Black feminist praxis, decolonial studies, arts and culture, and mental health advocacy in her work. In the time left over, she moonlights as a jazz singer.

Dr. Jennifer D. Turner is a Professor in Literacy Education and serves as the ADVANCE Professor for the College of Education. Dr. Turner’s research focuses on three interrelated areas: (a) Black young people’s freedom dreaming through arts-based methods; (b) future-affirming pedagogical practices in P-16 schools; and (c) intersectional multimodal research methods. Her current research explores how culturally responsive prompting for ChatGPT produces humanizing images of Black girls' intersectionality.