News and Events

HUMAN Residency Fellows to explore AI through the humanities

February 25, 2025

Ragdale, in conjunction with Lake Forest College, is pleased to announce the recipients of the HUMAN Residency Fellowship, made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

The HUMAN Residency jurors have elected artists:

Serena Dokuaa: poet and an AI policy expert who writes about ancestry, Black womanhood, and the sociotechnical analyses of AI.
GoldGrrl: dance and performance artist who examines the intersections of technology and Black culture.
Praba Pilar: performance artist and scholar who works with artificial intelligence to challenge techno-colonialism.
Kate Reed: sculpture artist and a wearable technology designer who specializes in building machines, modifying biology, augmenting the body, and growing technology.
Özge Samanci: media artist and graphic novelist whose interactive installations have been exhibited internationally.
Carissa Véliz: author who advises companies and policy makers worldwide about the ethics of AI.

Coming from a variety of disciplines, these fellows will explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and questions of equity and social justice through their creative works.

The Fellowship is provided through the Lake Forest College HUMAN project, a $1.2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Led by Davis Schneiderman, Executive Director of the Krebs Center for the Humanities and Professor of English, HUMAN explores artificial intelligence through a humanities perspective, equipping students with the skills to ethically integrate AI into their professional lives.

“Exploring the implications of artificial intelligence through the humanities is essential to prepare for the future,” said Schneiderman. “We are so pleased to collaborate with Ragdale and to bring these artists into a conversation that has been ongoing at Lake Forest College.”

Ragdale Artistic Director Regin Igloria is thrilled to welcome the six artists to Ragdale’s creative and collaborative environment: “We received an incredible breadth of applications, and these six artists and thinkers stood out in their commitment to widening our understandings of the role of AI. We cannot wait to see the work they will create.”

“Exploring the implications of artificial intelligence through the humanities is essential to prepare for the future.”

The HUMAN Residency Fellowship was designed to foster a collaborative environment in which artists from diverse disciplines are able to come together to explore the intersections of the humanities, artificial intelligence, and social justice. The selected artists will spend two blocks of time at Ragdale; an initial six-day AI-themed residency taking place in April, 2025 and an individual 18-day fee-waived residency to be scheduled in 2026 or 2027. The fellowship includes a $1,000 stipend for the initial themed residency and a $3,000 stipend for the individual residency, which may be used for travel or other expenses.

Benefiting from the interdisciplinary expertise of Lake Forest’s diverse faculty, the wider HUMAN grant aspires to navigate the rapidly evolving technological advancements connected to AI and automation through a humanities lens that is historical, practical, and attuned to questions of ethics and social justice. At the highest level, HUMAN seeks to demonstrate that unchecked AI and automation can replicate and exacerbate social inequity and disproportionally impact marginalized populations.

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Serena Dokuaa

Serena Dokuaa is a poet and an AI policy expert who writes about ancestry, Black womanhood, and the sociotechnical analyses of AI.

Her poetry can be found in the book Fake AI and in No, Dear Mag, where she also guest edited issue 32, Artifice.

Her AI policy work has appeared in academic journals and publications and news media, including Politico, Meatspace Press, and Patterns.

GoldGrrl

GoldGrrl is a dance and performance artist who examines the intersections of technology and Black culture. As a computer scientist, GoldGrrl explores the effects of dehumanization and perceived ethnicity. She reflects how seemingly unrelated disciplines converge to create powerful expressions of community.

GoldGrrl has presented, exhibited, and performed her work all over Chicago including Green Mill, MCA, The Taste, iO Theater, Den Theater, and the Chicago Cultural Center. She’s been covered in What About Chicago, Live at the Extraordinarium, Weirdos Welcome podcast, Vocalo radio, Chicago Reader, and Chicago Music Guide.

Praba Pilar

Praba Pilar is a performance artist and scholar who works with artificial intelligence to challenge techno-colonialism.

Pilar is a diasporic Colombian artist and scholar creating performances, digital and electronic works, experimental talks, and scholarly writing focused on emerging technologies and social justice.

Since 2020 she’s been working with AI companions, large language models, and platforms on subversive, playful, and simultaneously serious projects challenging techno-colonialism.

Kate Reed

Kate Reed is a sculpture artist and a wearable technology designer who specializes in building machines, modifying biology, augmenting the body, and growing technology. She champions a symbiotic relationship between technology and nature, advocating for the digital evolution of the natural world, and the natural evolution of the digital world.

Her designs and inventions have been featured at the White House, New York Fashion Week, the Museum of Design Atlanta, the Hackaday Superconference, the MIT Museum, and more. Her work has been published internationally.

Özge Samanci

Özge Samanci is a media artist and graphic novelist whose interactive installations have been exhibited internationally.

Her graphic memoir Dare to Disappoint (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2015) has been translated into six languages. Her second graphic novel, Evil Eyes Sea (Uncivilized Books, 2024), was named one of best graphic novels of 2024 by The Guardian.

Her drawings have appeared in The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and Slate Magazine.

Carissa Véliz

Carissa Véliz is an author who advises companies and policy makers worldwide about the ethics of AI.

She is the author of the highly-acclaimed Privacy Is Power (a 2020 Book of the Year in The Economist ) and the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics.

She is a member of UNESCO’s Women 4 Ethical AI, EPIC, and the Proton Foundation. She advises companies and policymakers around the world on privacy and the ethics of AI.

About the Krebs Center: The Krebs Center for the Humanities is set in an Italianate villa in Lake Forest where the traditional and the cutting-edge converge and where literature, philosophy, history, and the arts are not just subjects of study but also dynamic forces that prepare students to meet an ever-evolving future. The Krebs Center underscores the College’s commitment to paving the way for a future where creativity, critical thinking, and empathy take center stage.

About Ragdale: Ragdale is an artist residency program located in Lake Forest, Illinois that provides time and space for artists to develop new works. Hosting more than 200 residencies annually, Ragdale is one of the largest creative communities in the United States and is driven by a commitment to social justice, environmental stewardship, and access for artists with disabilities. Comprising a series of historic homes, purpose-built studios, and access to 50 acres of protected prairie land, Ragdale provides artists with a remarkable environment to explore their work.