AI in Scholarly and Creative Works, an Unconference by UMKC Libraries | Friday, April 4, 2025 | Miller Nichols Library
UMKC graduate students and faculty are invited to a one-day unconference on the theme of AI in scholarly and creative works to be hosted April 4, 2025 by UMKC Libraries. Apply now to join the unconference cohort!
AI in Scholarly and Creative Works Unconference
Unconferences are organized by the participants. Your mission, should you choose to join us, is to bring your ideas, experiences and budding expertise in using AI in your scholarly and creative works. You must be willing to share what you know with others. Listening and being open to learning from the other participants is a must. We’ll provide the venue, some session format options, the technology to capture what happens, and the precious time you need to collaborate with colleagues from many different areas of the university. Let’s build a new community around using AI in research!
What do we mean by AI in scholarly and creative works?
Researchers use AI tools for qualitative data analysis, text mining and analytics, data visualization, composition, text generation, literature synthesis, and more. This gathering will ask about the ways that you are using AI tools to constructively and ethically advance your scholarly, research, and generative work agendas.
What it’s not: We will explicitly not focus on issues of AI related to teaching – such as plagiarism avoidance, policies, or technology in student class work – other than using AI in scholarship of teaching.
How does an unconference work?
The Unconference will be held Friday, April 4, 2025 from, from 9:00am – 5:00pm in the Miller Nichols Library and Learning Center.
As your unconference hosts, the UMKC Libraries will take care of all the logistics, providing spaces, materials, and a blank schedule for the day. Attendees will share session ideas before the unconference, and collectively build the conference schedule. Supported by the hosts, attendees will facilitate the sessions, discussing, building, teaching, or creating with each other.
Possible session types:
- My Big Question: Participants work to collaboratively answer a question or solve a problem.
- Technology Show and Tell: Each participant gives a short demonstration of a tool and how they use it.
- Speed Geeking: Using the idea of speed dating, participants move through conversation partners or groups.
- Lightning Talks: Many short presentations on a theme. Related structures include Pecha Kucha and 3-Minute Thesis.
- Benefits/Challenges: Participants share best practices they have discovered, or work collaboratively to address a problem.
Still want to know more? Read this short article: Ten Simple Rules for Organizing an Unconference. 1
Eligibility
Currently enrolled UMKC graduate students, and UMKC-affiliated faculty are eligible to attend. Due to the interactive nature of the Unconference, 100 attendees will be selected. One third of the attendee spots are reserved for graduate students. There is no cost to participate.
The keynote presentation by Dr. Leonardo Flores — Chair of the English Department at Appalachian State University, working in electronic literature with a focus on e-poetry and digital writing — at 9:00 am on Friday, April 4, 2025 will be open to the UMKC campus community.
Application
Participants will be selected based on their responses to a short online application. Applications are due at midnight February 21, 2025.
Contact Library@umkc.edu with questions.
The UMKC Unconference for AI in Scholarly and Creative Works is supported by a Funding for Excellence grant from the Office of Research Services.
- Budd, A., Dinkel, H., Corpas, M., Fuller, J. C., Rubinat, L., Devos, D. P., Khoueiry, P. H., Förstner, K. U., Georgatos, F., Rowland, F., Sharan, M., Binder, J. X., Grace, T., Traphagen, K., Gristwood, A., & Wood, N. T. (2015). Ten Simple Rules for Organizing an Unconference. PLoS Computational Biology, 11(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003905. ↩︎
