Exploring Artificial Intelligence—Scholars and Artists of Adelphi University

Message From the Provost

The advent of ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence tools using natural language processing caught many unprepared. Within higher education, faculty members are engaging with substantive questions regarding pedagogy and academic integrity. The role of the essay as a tool to teach and evaluate critical thinking is being examined. For some, it is a cause for alarm, and for others, a stimulating catalyst to dialogue about the value of education.

Scholars across disciplines are at the forefront of researching the potentialities and risks associated with artificial intelligence tools. In this edition of Scholars and Artists of Adelphi University, you will learn about two efforts in which Adelphi University scholars are leading the way. You will also find a poignant poem—a reminder and call to humanity.

Ghazal of Oranges
Jan-Henry Gray

On New Year’s Eve, my father overfills the baskets with oranges,
mangoes, grapes, grapefruits, other citrus too, but mostly oranges.

The morning of the first, he opens every window to let the new year in.
In Chinatown, red bags sag with mustard greens and mandarin oranges.

A farmer in a fallow season kneels to know the dirt. More silt than soil,
he wipes his brow and mumbles to his dog: time to give up this crop of oranges.

The woman knows she let herself say too much to someone undeserving.
She lays her penance on her sister’s doorstep: a case of expensive oranges.

At the Whitney, I take a photo of a poem in a book behind the glass.
Above it, a painting: smears of blue, Frank O’Hara, his messy oranges.

The handsome server speaks with his hands: Tonight is grilled octopus
with braised fennel and olives, topped with peppercress, cara caras, and blood oranges.

No one at the table looks up, ashamed by the prices on the chic menus.
The busser fills my water and I inhale him: his faraway scent of oranges.

Seventh grade, Southern California: we monitored the daily smog alerts.
Red: stay inside. White: play outside. I forget what warning orange is.

Clutch was serious about art and said our final projects could be
whatever . . . performative . . . like, just show up with a wheelbarrow full of oranges.

Jan, in all of those first six years, why is all you can remember this:
the mist rising in the sunny air as you watched her peeling oranges.

Copyright © 2022 by Jan-Henry Gray.

Faculty in the News

“‘Staggering number’ of titanosaur nests discovered in India reveals controversial findings about dino moms.”—Live Science
Michael D’Emic, PhD, associate professor of biology, discusses the discovery in India of 92 nesting sites holding a total of 256 eggs likely laid by six titanosaur species.

“New, taller Barbie doll is aimed at kids as young as 3”—AP News
Joaniko Kohchi, director of the Institute for Parenting, discusses the appropriateness of Mattel’s new Barbie, created for a younger audience, in this widely published article.

“T-bills are shaky edifice of a make-believe economy”—Financial Times
Mariano Torras, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Finance and Economics, authored a letter discussing the impact of debt on the American economy.

“Campus research on Long Island, already thriving, could see funding boost”—Newsday
Ryan Wallace, PhD, assistant professor of environmental studies and sciences, discusses his environmental research projects.

Grants and Fellowships

Elizabeth de Freitas, PhD, professor of education, Matthew Curinga, EdD, associate professor of education, and a colleague from Columbia University received a $246,051 grant from the Spencer Foundation for their project, “Mapping School Buildings Using Sensory Ethnographic Methods: A District-wide Study of School Architecture and Spatial Justice,” which focuses on the spatial practices and sensory dimensions of urban learning environments.

Karolina Lempert, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, received a $377,484 grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health for a project titled “Individual and Age Differences in Temporal Discounting: The Role of Memory for Time,” which will investigate whether people who perceive time as going by faster are more willing to delay gratification. The study will also examine the neural basis of that effect using neuroimaging.

Kirsten Ziomek, PhD, associate professor of history, was selected for a 2023–2024 Fellowship for Advanced Social Science Research on Japan, a joint activity of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission. She will receive a $60,000 grant to fund her research and writing leading to the publication of a book on the Japanese military and the colonial subjects and local populations involved in its Asia-Pacific operations during World War II.