This unique fellowship is part of a three-year initiative designed to bring together scholars, activists, and AI practitioners to explore how AI technologies—especially those aimed at accessibility—shape the material world, and with what ethical implications. In addition to exploring the overlap of AI and access, the Habitable Worlds initiative argues that Disability Studies provides a unique framework to explore the ethical questions about how AI shapes the material world, and with what consequences. Disability Studies’ unique capacity for analyzing the social justice implications of AI derives from its ability to frame ultimate questions—what makes us human? What constitutes “intelligence”? What constitutes “consciousness”?—in the context of the lived conditions of disability. In this way, Disability Studies exemplifies and puts into practice the humanities’ essential role in grappling with and responding to fundamental social justice challenges. A primary goal of the initiative is to train humanities faculty in both Disability Studies and the basics of AI. Each year, for the next three years, we will select 3 faculty fellows (for a total of 9 fellows across three years).

What the Fellowship Entails

• Stipend: Fellows receive financial support ($10,000) to pursue or expand research and course development at the intersection of Disability Studies, Ethics, and AI.
• Summer Institute: Fellows will participate in a one week, in person summer institute. The Summer Faculty Institute will deepen faculty engagement by providing foundational AI knowledge, training in Disability Studies, shared readings, and collaborative course-planning sessions, ensuring participants are prepared to address the complex ethical and technical issues at the core of this project.
• Research Support: The stipend is intended to support course development and faculty summer research. Faculty will have competitive access to travel funds to support conference engagement related to the fellowship, including for SOTL research. Fellows will give a public lecture connecting their research and teaching to the project.
• Community-Based Course Design: Fellows will develop or redesign an upper division Integrations Course (in Ethics & Justice, Faith & Reason, or Interdisciplinary Connections) that integrates community-based learning on AI accessibility.  Courses will also carry the Experiential Learning for Mission designation. The fellowship includes financial support for such engagement.
• Collaborations with “Silicon Beach” Partners: Fellows will have opportunities to connect with local tech firms in Playa Vista to explore real-world applications and foster student involvement.
• Symposia Organization: Fellows will co-host an annual symposium on their fellowship theme, bringing together interdisciplinary experts, disabled technology users, industry partners, and other stakeholders.

Who is Eligible:

• Fulltime, continuing humanities faculty: All fulltime, continuing humanities faculty whose teaching portfolios include teaching upper division Intergrations courses (either new or existing) are eligible with Department Chair approval. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please reach out to Mairead Sullivan (Mairead.Sullivan@lmu.edu). Humanities includes all traditional humanities departments as well as interdiscplinary departments and individual faculty who can demonstrate a strong humanities lens in their courses.
• Faculty who meet the above conditions are eligible regardless of their area of expertise. In other words, faculty do not need to be experts in either Disability Studies or AI. Rather, faculty must have a willingness and a rationale for connecting new or existing course topics to the broad theme of Disability, Ethics, and AI. We encourage creative engagement with these topics. If you are unsure if your course can connect, please reach out to Mairead Sullivan (mairead.sullivan@lmu.edu)
• We will work to get expedited approval for courses to carry core attributes for the fall of 2025. So existing or newly proposed courses do not need to have core course approval.

Application Details:

• Application Deadline: In order to work with fall scheduling, applications will be due January 30, 2026 at 9am.
• Application Details: Please complete this very brief application form. Depending on the number of applications, we may request additional materials.
• Application Questions: You can reach out directly to Mairead Sullivan (mairead.sullivan@lmu.edu) 

We note that this turnaround time is relatively quick. The application is quite brief. Unfortunately, the time frame between receiving the grant and our need for course scheduling is quite tight.

The faculty need NOT to be experts in either AI or Disability Studies. You simply need to have an interest in learning and using these themes as a substantial part of your course as well as participating collaborative experiential learning project.