While he did not dance, dance, dance across the Royce Hall stage, Randall Park hosted the Oct. 12 UCLA College Lecture Awards with style, his trademark wit and charm. He focused on Bruin faculty members and how their research, scholarship and teaching reflect the transformative power of higher education.
“These professors teach us how to ask deeper questions about the communities we shape and the world we inhabit,” he said. “They give us the knowledge to solve problems we still don’t understand. They push us to reach outside the narratives we know. They discover. They inspire. They educate. And I hope that you’re as excited as I am to hear what they have to say.”
Representing the UCLA College’s five interconnected divisions, the honored faculty gave presentations highlighting a unique aspect of their work and commitment to advancing knowledge.
Helen Deutsch (humanities) discussed what’s at stake when we prioritize the convenience of artificial intelligence over our humanity. She traced how disability, difference, desire and difficulty are at the core of what it means to be human, as evidenced by the writings of Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson — and our collective societal response to Jimothy, the Internet-famous Seattle raccoon.
“Today we are being told that AI is the future, as if we have no choice in the matter. AI propels us forward. It promises instant gratification, immediate answers so that we can move on,” she said. “As a humanist scholar, I am on the side of desire, of difficulty, of slowing down and struggling.
“Perhaps people love that weird, disabled, elusive raccoon because he reminds us of the importance of struggle and resilience at a moment when many of us are tired and demoralized,” she added. “AI has recently been described as eliciting ‘cognitive surrender.’ In my classroom, we resist. We embrace the difficulty of the texts we encounter and our own embodied lives, sustained by the joy and curiosity that make us human.”
Photo of Helen Deutsch: Roger Lee/UCLA