The OSU Humanities Institute is excited to announce the visiting speaker for the 2025 Zacher Lecture in the Humanities: artist Stephanie Dinkins. She will present "The Stories We Tell Our Machines: Data Narratives and Algorithmic Futures." A reception will follow.
In this artist talk, Stephanie Dinkins shares her ongoing work at the intersection of art, community knowledge and artificial intelligence through two key projects: If We Don’t, Who Will? and Data Trust. These initiatives challenge dominant data practices and reimagine AI systems as spaces of care, cultural specificity and community agency. Dinkins explores how the stories humans tell themselves and machine learning systems fundamentally shape how those systems perceive the world. When data is self-determined, intentional and nuanced, it becomes a tool for building more equitable and empathetic AI. But when data is extracted, decontextualized or standardized, it risks amplifying harmful biases and flattening cultural richness. Through participatory projects that include oral history, the cultivation of narrative-rich ecosystems and eventually DNA data storage, Dinkins makes a case for "bespoke and renegade prompting," polymorphic data practices and community-centered interventions. Her work invites both public audiences and institutional stakeholders to ask: what stories are we encoding into the future—and whose stories are missing? This talk is a call to action: to disrupt extractive norms in AI development and co-create systems rooted in the values, languages and knowledges of the global majority. If we don’t take up this responsibility, who will?
This event is free to attend, open to the public and welcoming to all. Hosted by the OSU Humanities Institute. RSVPs are requested:
RSVP HERE
Stephanie Dinkins is a transdisciplinary artist and educator whose work intersects emerging technologies and our future histories. Her art practice is deeply committed to creating platforms for dialogue about AI as it intersects with these critical societal issues. As an LG - Guggenheim Awardee, and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI (2023), Dinkins leverages technology and storytelling to challenge and reimagine the narratives surrounding marginalized communities, particularly those of Black and brown individuals. Through her installations, digital platforms, and community-based projects, Dinkins seeks not only to question the current paradigms of AI development but also to forge paths toward more equitable and inclusive technological futures. Her work emphasizes the importance of incorporating diverse voices and perspectives into the design and application of AI, advocating for a future where technology uplifts and amplifies underrepresented histories and experiences and fostering a tech ecosystem that is truly beneficial for all.
Dinkins is the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art at Stony Brook University and a Schmitt Futures AI2050 Senior Fellow. Dinkins’ work in AI and other mediums uses emerging technologies and social collaboration to work toward technological ecosystems based on care and social equity. She exhibits and publicly advocates for inclusive AI internationally. at a broad spectrum of community, private, and institutional venues. Dinkins' experiences with and explorations of artificial intelligence have led to a deep interest in how algorithmic systems impact communities of color in particular and our futures more generally. Her experiments with AI have led full circle to the realization that the stories, myths, and cultural perspectives, aka data, that we hold and share form and inform society and have done so for millennia. She has concluded that our stories are our algorithms. We must value, grow, respect, and collaborate with each other's stories (data) to build care and broadly compassionate values into the technological ecosystems that increasingly support our future.
Address & Parking
The Faculty Club is located on the OSU Oval, at 181 Oval Dr S, Columbus, OH 43210.
Limited parking is available outside the Faculty Club- obtain a parking pass at the Faculty Club front desk. Other parking is available at the Ohio Union Lots, Find more at CampusParc.
For more information on the speaker and this event, please contact Megan Moriarty, Communications and Marketing Specialist for the Humanities Institute.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-known scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
We value in-person engagement at our events as we strive to amplify the energy in the room. To submit an accommodation request, please send your request to Cody Childs, childs.97@osu.edu.
