The Future of Research in the Age of AI
March 27-28, 2025
Montana State University
Bozeman, Montana
For decades, historians and digital humanists have been at the forefront of collaborative, computational and digital research, but the scale, volume and complexity of historical records have expanded far beyond the capacity of individual scholars to organize. Researchers are increasingly engaged with questions of data sovereignty, access and preservation. Despite the significance of historical records across many fields of research — from biological sciences, ecology and earth sciences to legal and political science — federal and private foundation funding for historical research, often tailored for individual researchers, has remained largely static. As federal agencies support multi-institutional centers, or “engines,” to drive research in the natural and social sciences, historians are considering similar modes of organizing historical research.
This conference explores the possibilities and challenges of large-scale research in the age of AI and machine learning. What models of large-scale research are suitable for historians and allied disciplines across the humanities and social sciences? What discoveries and opportunities are possible when these scholars engage in large-scale research? What can researchers from the natural, physical, and computational sciences share about the demands of large-scale research in the age of machine learning and AI? And how can scholars work with federal agencies and private foundations to support research on a scale appropriate to advance their disciplines? The conference will allow colleagues to reflect on the opportunities and challenges for conducting large-scale research and creative inquiry in the age of AI.
Thursday, March 27
Welcome
Topic: The future of large-scale research in the age of AI
Speakers:
- William G. Thomas III, Dean of the College of Letters and Science and Professor of History, Montana State University, and Vice President, Research Division, American Historical Association
- Sarah Weicksel, Director of Research and Publications, and Incoming Executive Director, American Historical Association
Session I: Project Showcase - Large-scale research in History
Presentations:
- "Calculating the Health and Mortality of African American Refugees on Civil War Federal
Plantations: The Promise of Large-Scale Research"
- Thavolia Glymph, Peabody Family Distinguished Service Professor, Duke University and American Historical Association
- "Distant Viewing: AI, Archives, and Exploring the Past"
- Lauren Tilton, E. Claiborne Robins Professor of Liberal Arts and Digital Humanities, University of Richmond
- "Hacking the Archives: Using AI to Explore the History and Future of Official Secrecy"
- Matthew Connelly, Professor of History, Columbia University
Lunch provided for registrants
Session II: Project Showcase - Large-scale Research in History
Presentations:
- "Petitioning for Freedom & the 50-State Solution to Legal Indexing"
- Katrina Jagodinsky, Associate Professor of History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- “Making of Enslaved.org: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade"
- Walter Hawthorne, Professor of African and Digital History, and Dean Rehberger, Director, Matrix, Michigan State University
- "The Hermitage Plantation Register: A Case Study in AI-Assisted Handwritten Text Recognition
for Historical Research"
- Loren Moulds, head of Digital Scholarship and Preservation, University of Virginia School of Law
Discussants:
- Cascade Tuholske, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, Montana State University
- John Sheppard, Distinguished Professor, Gianforte School of Computing, Montana State University
Coffee Break with refreshments
Public Keynote Panel: "What is Creativity in the Age of AI?"
Museum of the Rockies Auditorium
Welcome:
- Sarah Weicksel, Director of Research and Publications, and Incoming Executive Director, American Historical Association (moderator)
Panelists:
- Cat Dale, Associate Professor of Film and Film Studies, College of Arts and Architecture, Montana State University
- Thavolia Glymph, Peabody Family Distinguished Service Professor, Duke University and American Historical Association
- William G. Thomas III, Dean of the College of Letters and Science and Professor of History, Montana State University
Q&A
Friday, March 28
Montana State University Alumni Foundation Building Conference Room
Roundtable Discussions, Session I: Large-Scale Research, Data Sovereignty, Ethics and AI
Moderators:
- Kristen Intemann, Director, Center for Science, Technology, Ethics & Society, Montana State University
- Nick Lux, Professor and Curriculum & Instruction Program Leader for Department of Education, Montana State University
- Sarah Mannheimer, Associate Professor and Data Librarian, Montana State University Library
- Scott Young, Associate Professor and User Experiment & Assessment Librarian, Montana State University Library
Table sessions with participants and guest scholars
Break
Roundtable Discussions, Session II: AI and Writing and AI across the disciplines
Moderators:
- Jason Clark, Professor and Head of Research Optimization, Analytics and Data Services, Montana State University Library
- William Fassbender, Assistant Professor of English, Montana State University
- Michelle Miley, Associate Dean, College of Letters and Science, Director of the Writing Center, Montana State University
Table sessions with participants and guest scholars
12:00 noon
Lunch provided for registrants
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Roundtable Strategy Session
Moderators:
- William G. Thomas III
- Sarah Weicksel
Table sessions on possible funders, research centers, and interdisciplinary research (MSU faculty, conference participants, guest scholars, AHA representatives, and deans)
Wrap-up
Co-sponsors
- College of Letters and Science
- College of Arts and Architecture
- Museum of the Rockies
- Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering
- Buffalo Nations Food Systems Initiative
- MSU Library
- Gianforte School of Computing
- Center for Faculty Excellence