IST Research Talks: Christopher Dancy
Date & Time: September 10, 2026 from 12:05 PM - 01:15 PM
Location: Westgate Building | E339
Join Christopher Dancy, associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics, and African American studies, for "Critically Considering the Human and AI in Human-AI Interaction.” The event is part of the IST Research Talks, a series of lectures that highlight the interdisciplinary work of Penn State faculty and scholars.
Abstract
In this talk, he critically discusses connections between AI systems, humans, and Blackness and discusses some of the infrastructure creation that has given us the space to explore these connections. He uses a multi-level framework to consider ways in which a standard genre of the human ground AI engineering processes and consider what the human-AI interactions of these deployed systems mean for two main application pathways for his research: (Black) digital archives and disaster recovery. This critical framework is useful as one considers memory and the interactions between current generative AI systems, knowledge, and the human. He ends by thinking through paths toward liberatory futures that are anchored in a Black radical tradition.
About the Speaker
Dr. Christopher L. Dancy is an associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics, and African American Studies at Penn State, and an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. He is founder and director of The Human in Computing and Cognition (THiCC) lab, co-director of the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk (CBDR), and founder and director of the Liberatory Tech Project (LibTech). As a co-director of CBDR, Dr. Dancy leads an interdisciplinary team to critically explore intersections between Black digital archives and AI systems in value-driven ways. His expertise and interests lie at the intersection of human behavior, computational systems, and Blackness with a goal of studying the Human in various computing systems and engineering processes. He uses theory, perspectives, and methods from computational cognitive science, Black studies, and artificial intelligence, to ground his interdisciplinary research and teaching at these intersections. Dr. Dancy is an NSF CAREER award recipient, with a goal of moving AI and computing toward the development of socioculturally competent AI systems, and is co-lead of the Computational Representation of Human Decision Processes research thrust for the NSF-funded AI Institute for Societal Decision-Making (AI-SDM) where he is using computational cognitive systems to study and intervene in the real impacts of racialization and anti-Blackness on decision making processes and outcomes during disaster recovery. He is also a first-generation college graduate, which helps to contextualize his research and educational goals in higher education.
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