Today's Messages

The SUNY Academic Affairs Fellows Programs are offering webinars during the spring 2026 semester to support faculty, staff, and administrators on a wide range of topics related to AI literacy, civic discourse, diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice,  and sustainability. Registration for each is available through the link provided. 

Strategies to Address Psychological Barriers to Civic Discourse  - February 19 @ 12:00-1:00 p.m.
This webinar, hosted by a SUNY Civil Discourse and Civic Education and Engagement Fellow, will identify empirically supported ways to address psychological barriers to civic discourse. Practical strategies to combat anxiety, group think and promote open-mindedness in both facilitators and participants will be provided with recommendations for how attendees can easily incorporate these practices into their courses. 

At the Intersection of DEISJ & Sustainability  - February 23@ 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Sustainability initiatives and social justice movements are deeply connected. Marginalized communities bear the consequences of climate change and environmental disasters to a disproportionate degree. As such, it is important for environmental justice movements to center diversity, equity, and inclusion. This webinar invites a panel of DEISJ-focused Sustainability Faculty Fellows to discuss how they center DEISJ in their sustainability-oriented research, teaching, and activism/advocacy. The webinar will conclude with a roundtable, moderated by DEISJ Fellows, where we will explore the importance of recognizing how DEISJ and Sustainability initiatives intersect.

Back to Fundamentals: Using, creating, and sharing information ethically in the age of AI  - February 23 @ 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Faculty participants attending this webinar will be able to identify potential ethical issues regarding the creation, sharing, and using information while using AI in the context of a particular course they’re teaching/plan to teach, explore in the contexts of their own courses/teaching different ethical dilemmas related to the creation and sharing of AI generated information in the context of their work with students, and identify different types of ethical harms that the creation, sharing, and using information may cause when using AI to do so (personal, interpersonal, societal levels).

Sustainability in the Arts, Humanities, History, and DEISJ  - March 6 @11:00-12:00 p.m.
Explore sustainability integration across humanities and social sciences—from literature and history to sociology and communication—with special attention to environmental justice and cultural dimensions of climate change. This session features real-world fieldwork examples and practical strategies for teaching whose knowledge counts as "environmental" and how cultural narratives shape our understanding of nature. Leave with ready-to-use prompts, assignments, and justice frameworks for your courses.

AI Across the Sciences: Connecting Teaching, Learning, and Research  - March 23 @ 12:00-1:00 p.m.
This webinar brings together perspectives from health sciences, geography/geospatial information science and technology, and computer science to explore practical uses of artificial intelligence in scientific education and research. Speakers will discuss how AI is reshaping disciplinary methods, supporting student learning, and enabling new forms of inquiry. Attention will be given to opportunities and limits: reliability, transparency, equity, and responsible use in classroom and research contexts. Examples from each field will illustrate how AI tools can be integrated into existing curricula and research workflows while maintaining rigor and reproducibility.

AI and the Evolving Research Lifecycle: Multidisciplinary Perspectives  - March 30 @ 2:00-3:00 p.m.
This presentation examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping the scholarly research process across a variety of disciplines. Speakers will discuss where AI can meaningfully enhance core research activities—from question formation and literature discovery to data analysis, interpretation, and communication—while also considering discipline-specific complications such as questions about authorship, citation, methodological transparency, bias, and the changing nature of expertise. Through examples from each field, the session highlights how researchers are adapting workflows, reframing research skills, using AI as a measurement tool to generate novel insights, and negotiating new ethical and pedagogical questions as AI becomes part of everyday scholarly practice.

Sustainability in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics  - April 2 @ 11:00-12:00 p.m.
Climate change is a wicked problem involving technical solutions AND justice implications—how do we teach both in biology, environmental science, chemistry, mathematics, and engineering? This interactive workshop explores the trade-offs and complexities of environmental solutions while providing practical tools for teaching systems thinking and ecological literacy. Learn strategies for honoring scientific rigor while engaging with social complexity in your STEM courses.

Sustainability in Action: Approaches to Applied Learning  - April 24 @ 11:00-12:00 p.m.
See sustainability education in action through pilot implementations across the SUNY system, featuring faculty AND facilities staff presenting real results from spring semester student projects. This showcase demonstrates how applied learning advances both student development and institutional climate goals, with a complete implementation toolkit provided for those ready to try this approach. Leave with downloadable materials including sticker sets, prompts, assessment rubrics, and step-by-step guides you can use immediately in your courses.