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X-WR-CALNAME:“Re-imagining the Other/Ourselves: Finding the Human in the 
 Age of AI”
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260520T231307Z
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DTSTART:20250417T230000Z
DTEND:20250418T000000Z
DESCRIPTION:Presented by the Oregon Humanities Center\n\nWe are at a moment
  when it is vitally important to imagine and articulate what makes us huma
 n. The steady drumbeat of news about AI\, about ever more competent models
  achieving unprecedented milestones\, raises questions about what the role
  for humans will be in the not-so-distant future. We have seen similar mom
 ents before. For hundreds of years\, automation has pushed people into new
  relations with technology\, with work\, and with each other. And scholars
  have long come up with different answers to explain the uniquely human co
 ntribution: e.g.\, mental versus manual labor\, creativity versus rote wor
 k. But today’s technologists are tackling new terrain: the mechanization
  of human relationship.  \n\nJoin us as the 2024–25 Cressman Lecturer Al
 lison Pugh gives a talk titled “Re-imagining the Other/Ourselves: Findin
 g the Human in the Age of AI” on Thursday\, April 17\, 2025 at 4 p.m. in
  the Knight Library Browsing Room. Based on five years of ethnographic res
 earch\, Pugh offers a humanistic response to the rise of AI\, one that pro
 bes the profound meaning of human connection\, reckons with the challenges
  of seeing and being seen\, and reimagines what we know of ourselves and o
 thers in light of the automation challenge. \n\n Allison Pugh is a profess
 or of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She writes about how people f
 orge connections and find meaning and dignity at work and at home. In her 
 latest book The Last Human Job:The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected Wo
 rld (2024)\, Pugh develops the concept of “connective labor\,” the col
 laborative work of emotional recognition. This includes three key componen
 ts—empathetic listening\, emotion management\, and the act of “witness
 ing\,” in which one individual reflects what they have seen and heard. D
 rawing on years of interview and observational data\, Pugh shows how in se
 ctors like education\, healthcare\, and therapy\, this work is increasingl
 y systemized—a process that she argues makes it ripe for eventual mechan
 ization. In the face of teacher shortages and hype around “chatbot thera
 pists\,” Pugh makes a case for connective labor’s value to society and
  the potential consequences for inequality should it become a scarce commo
 dity. \n\nIn addition\, Pugh is the author of The Tumbleweed Society: Work
 ing and Caring in an Age of Insecurity (2015)\, Longing and Belonging: Par
 ents\, Children\, and Consumer Culture (2009)\, and an edited volume Beyon
 d the Cubicle: Job Insecurity\, Intimacy\, and the Flexible Self(2016). \n
 \n Pugh’s talk\, part of this year’s “Re-imagine” series\, is free
  and open to the public and will be livestreamed and recorded. Please regi
 ster at ohc.uoregon.edu
GEO:44.043178;-123.077726
LOCATION:Knight Library\, Browsing Room
SUMMARY:“Re-imagining the Other/Ourselves: Finding the Human in the Age o
 f AI”
URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.uoregon.edu/event/cressman-lecture-allison-p
 ugh
CATEGORIES:Arts & Culture
CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations
CATEGORIES:Free
CATEGORIES:Career
CATEGORIES:Professional Development
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