“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and the AFRICAN DIASPORA” (Fall 2025)

EXCITING NEWS!! Dr. Leslie Clement (formerly Gutierrez), Dr. Felesia Stukes and Dr. Charles Johnson were awarded a $20,000 grant from the National Humanities Center (NHC) in February of 2024 to develop a co-constructed, team-taught, interdisciplinary course entitled African Diaspora and AI, across two North Carolina HBCU campuses (JCSU & NCCU) that will launch during the 2025-26 academic school year.

• Their course brings computer science and the humanities, with specific reference to the African Diaspora, into a conversation about how to create more inclusive AI tools and culturally sensitive AI practitioners.

I am excited to co-host the fourth episode of “Including Us In Tech,” Live an inclusive podcast on LinkedIn to discuss my co-developed course “AI & and the African Diaspora that will be co-taught across two North Carolina HBCUs (Fall 2025)

I was selected to participate in the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot entitled “AI Unlocked Empowering Higher Ed through Research and Discovery” in Denver, Colorado in April 2025. “The primary goal of this workshop is to connect U.S. based higher education affiliates with valuable information and resources to deepen their understanding of how to leverage AI in their current work, while also equipping participants with the skills necessary to advance their careers and achieve their specific professional objectives (NAIRR Pilot website).”

I. Academic Collaborative Presentations [paper presentation]

1. “HBCU Faculty Prepare a Pipeline of Responsible AI Curators and Practitioners,” AI For All Open Education Summit, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee (June 2024)

Faculty-student mentorship: Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) Honors Program senior, Traykiese Gillentine (2025), who is an IDS major with concentrations in computer science Information technology and engineering,  co-presented on why he chose to study technology through an humanistic lens.

2.“Responsible AI, Data Science, and Cross-Curricular, Inter-institutional Partnerships, HBCU STEM & Humanities Summers Institute, Howard University, Washington, D.C. August 2024 [panel presentation]

3. “The Implications of Artificial Intelligence Across Africa and the African Diaspora,” a virtual generative dialogue entitled “Bridging Pan-Africanism and Academic Leadership,” December 2024.

IV. Article Written About Our Course “African Diaspora and AI” (click the link below)

https://www.nccu.edu/news/artificial-intelligence-and-african-diaspora-meet-course

“I want to be remembered as someone who was sincere. Even if I made mistakes, they were made in sincerity, If I was wrong, I was wrong in sincerity.”  -Malcolm X

MY DIGITAL HUMANITIES ACTIVISM, SCHOLARSHIP & TEACHING:

                                            My Ongoing Charlotte Digital Diasporas Project!                                                2015: Digital Diasporas of North Carolina: Exploring Africa and its Diasporas in Charlotte  Introduction to the Participants in my Charlotte Digital Diasporas Project Watch the introduction video of the seven life stories that I collected below:

 2015:  *FULL DIGITAL STORIES-I captured seven digital life stories of people of African descent living in Charlotte, North Carolina to explore and celebrate the diversity of global black cultures locally. I presented them at the 2016 National Council for Black Studies annual conference. Click on the link below to watch the seven participants’ short documentaries:    https://www.youtube.com/user/MsLeslie38

My 2022 CTI Seminar: Charlotte as Teaching Canvas: Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms & Equity-Mindsets by Engaging in Local Diasporic Spaces

2015: I was a faculty fellow participant in a 10-day digital tools seminar entitled “The City as Teaching Canvas,” sponsored by the New York University (NYU) Faculty Research Network at the American College of Greece in Athens, Greece

2014: “Re-Presenting the Global Classroom and Faces of Study Abroad through International Faculty Development and Digital Humanities.” NYU FRN National Symposium: The Global Imperative for Higher Education. San Juan, Puerto Rico

MY DIGITAL STORYTELLING COURSES/BLOG/WEBPAGES

Course Blog: https://activismodigitalblog.wordpress.com

2016: SPA 496-A: Voces y Activismo Global: Narrativas Digitales de Guerra, Trauma, y Migración/ENG 498-Global Voices and Activism: (Digital Stories of War, Trauma, &  Migration).  This was a hybrid interdisciplinary course that focused on faculty scholarship and community activism surrounding migration and trauma. Students explored how to use various digital platforms/tools to bare-witness (testimoniar), cope with trauma (la depresión / el temor / la seperación de familias/ la deportación/la violencia), and advocate (abogar) for local social justice..

2014: Co-Teacher, *SPA 496-B: Digital Storytelling: Transnational Identities and Movements. I co-created and co-taught this interdisciplinary (Spanish/English) hybrid productions course with Dr. Sharon D. Raynor. Student Digital Story from the SPA 496-B class was published, Kayla Wilmer, “From Rapping to Rappin,” The Freshness of Opt-Ed Videos, Public Media Scan. AIR, Inc