Katherine Elkins

Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature
Director of The Integrated Program in Humane Studies
Founding Co-Director KDH Lab
Kenyon College

Katherine Elkins is Professor of Humanities and faculty in Computing at Kenyon College, where she teaches in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies. She writes about the age-old conversation between philosophy and literature as well as the more recent conversation about AI, language and art. Recent books include The Shapes of Stories with Cambridge University Press, which explores the emotional arc underlying narrative. In addition to articles on authors ranging from Plato and Sappho to Woolf and Kafka, her latest research explores AI ethics and explainability in Large Language Models like GPT4. She consults on AI regulation and fairness, and can also be heard talking about new developments in AI on podcasts like Radio AI and streaming networks like Al Jazeera.

Participant In These Roundtable Discussions

Sat
Oct 15th
2022
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Coding and the New Human Phenotype

This conference explores the concept of life, knowledge, and experience through the lens of “code,” examining how meaning is encoded, transmitted, and transformed across biological, digital, and cultural systems. Through five roundtables, it investigates how we reconstruct the past, navigate authenticity in a digital world, interpret fiction and ideas, engage with AI-generated language, and consider the possibility that reality itself may be fundamentally computational—together asking what is gained, and what may be lost, as code increasingly mediates our understanding of the world.
Sat
Nov 19th
2022
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Living in Difficult Times

This roundtable explores how individuals and society can respond to today’s intersecting crises—ranging from public health and climate change to political polarization and global conflict. It considers how different fields and communities can work together to confront shared challenges and foster resilience in an uncertain world.
Sat
Sep 23rd
2023
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Emotion

This roundtable explores the nature of emotion as a fundamental yet paradoxical aspect of human life, examining its roles in the brain, behavior, and evolution. It considers whether emotions can be understood, controlled, or even replicated in AI, and what they reveal about consciousness and human experience.