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The 2024 Nelson Series, Learning in the Age of AI, is an exploration of the complex relationship between human and machine learning. Industry experts will help us make sense of how people learn in the age of AI.

John Warner, author of the forthcoming book How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI, will present “Resist, Renew, Explore: Human Values in the Age of AI.” Now that we have easy access to technology that produces text with unmatched speed and fluency, we’re questioning the role writing plays in school, work and society. Warner will explore the differences between “syntax generation” and writing as the experience of thinking, feeling and communicating, and how to empower students to engage with one of the most human things we do.

Warner is a national voice on the teaching of writing, faculty labor and institutional values, both as a frequent speaker and a longtime contributor to Inside Higher Ed, where his “Just Visiting” column has run weekly for over 10 years. He is also the author of Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities, The Writer’s Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing, and Sustainable. Resilient. Free.: The Future of Public Higher Education.

A former college instructor with 20 years of experience across multiple institutions (University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, Clemson, College of Charleston), Warner works as a writer, editor, speaker and consultant, and he is a faculty affiliate at the College of Charleston. In addition to his work in education, for over a decade he’s been a weekly columnist for the Chicago Tribune, writing about books and the habits of reading as his alter ego, “The Biblioracle.” In 2021, he started an associated Substack newsletter, The Biblioracle Recommends, which was a Substack Featured Publication for 2021.

Warner is the author of five other books, including the Washington Post No. 1 best seller, My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook of George W. Bush (co-authored with Kevin Guilfoile), a parody of writing advice books, Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice from a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant, a novel, The Funny Man, and a collection of short stories, Tough Day for the Army. His fiction, humor, essays and commentary have been published in dozens of outlets including Slate, The Washington Post and Salon.

This talk is free and open to the public.

Upcoming Talk

Nov. 12

Emily M. Bender, 100 Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence, Time magazine, 2023; professor of linguistics, University of Washington (Seattle)