The Power of Literature w/Kirsten Hall Herlin, Assistant Professor at UATX

I had the pleasure of conversing with Kirsten Hall Herlin, an Assistant Professor at UATX, a distinguished scholar of literature, and the managing editor of the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. We discussed the intricacies of writing and the role of literature in shaping our lives and understanding the world.

Kirsten and I explored the impact of AI and Critical Social Justice on the humanities. Could AI ever win a Pulitzer Prize? Does human consciousness play a crucial role in the writing process? Are the nuances of personal experience, emotional understanding, and subjective thought beyond AI’s reach? Or can those be faked? We also considered how societal division has affected the humanities and whether great literature can help unite us.

Kirsten on X: https://x.com/Kirstenannehall

0:00 Intro
3:10 Importance of literature to Kirsten
9:00 AI influence on literature & academia
14:20 The writing process
23:00 Reading fiction
29:00 How Kirsten came to Austin
37:00 Right-wing “wokeness”
39:45 Thought experiment & Peter’s questions for Kirsten

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Podcast: "Conversations with Peter Boghossian": https://pod.link/1650150225
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⸺BOOKS⸺
“How To Have Impossible Conversations” | https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738285323/ref=cm_sw_r_api_i_7DPKY2S21SSNAV8PCBW3_0
“A Manual For Creating Atheists” | https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Creating-Atheists-Peter-Boghossian/dp/1939578094/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1664805100&sr=1-2

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