Ragdale Welcomes Six HUMAN Residency Fellows
LAKE FOREST, IL (18 February, 2025) - Ragdale, in conjunction with Lake Forest College is pleased to announce the recipients of the HUMAN Residency Fellowship. The HUMAN Residency jurors have elected artists Serena Dokuaa, GoldGrrl, Praba Pilar, Kate Reed, Özge Samanci, and Carissa Véliz as the recipients of the HUMAN Residency Fellowship. This fellowship is made possible by the Mellon Foundation.
Coming from a variety of disciplines, these fellows will explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and questions of equity and social justice through their creative works.
Serena Dokuaa is a poet and an AI policy expert who writes about ancestry, Black womanhood, and the sociotechnical analyses of AI.
GoldGrrl is a dance and performance artist who examines the intersections of technology and Black culture.
Praba Pilar is a performance artist and scholar who works with artificial intelligence to challenge techno-colonialism.
Kate Reed is a sculpture artist and a wearable technology designer who specializes in building machines, modifying biology, augmenting the body, and growing technology.
Özge Samanci is a media artist and graphic novelist whose interactive installations have been exhibited internationally.
Carissa Véliz is an author who advises companies and policy makers worldwide about the ethics of AI.
“We are thrilled to welcome these six artists to Ragdale’s creative and collaborative environment,” said Ragdale Artistic Director Regin Igloria. “We received an incredible breadth of applications, and these six artists and thinkers stood out in their commitment to widening our understandings of the role of AI. We cannot wait to see the work they will create.”
The HUMAN Residency Fellowship is provided in partnership with Lake Forest College through their HUMAN project, a $1.2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Led by Davis Schneiderman, Executive Director of the Krebs Center for the Humanities and Professor of English, HUMAN explores artificial intelligence through a humanities perspective, equipping students with the skills to ethically integrate AI into their professional lives.
“Exploring the implications of artificial intelligence through the humanities is essential to prepare for the future,” said Schneiderman. “We are so pleased to collaborate with Ragdale and to bring these artists into a conversation that has been ongoing at Lake Forest College.”
The HUMAN Residency Fellowship was designed to foster a collaborative environment in which artists from diverse disciplines are able to come together to explore the intersections of the humanities, artificial intelligence, and social justice. The selected artists will spend two blocks of time at Ragdale; an initial six-day AI-themed residency taking place in April, 2025 and an individual 18-day fee-waived residency to be scheduled in 2026 or 2027. The fellowship includes a $1,000 stipend for the initial themed residency and a $3,000 stipend for the individual residency, which may be used for travel or other expenses.
Benefiting from the interdisciplinary expertise of Lake Forest’s diverse faculty, the wider HUMAN grant aspires to navigate the rapidly evolving technological advancements connected to AI and automation through a humanities lens that is historical, practical, and attuned to questions of ethics and social justice. At the highest level, HUMAN seeks to demonstrate that unchecked AI and automation can replicate and exacerbate social inequity and disproportionally impact marginalized populations.
About the Krebs Center: The Krebs Center for the Humanities is set in an Italianate villa in Lake Forest where the traditional and the cutting-edge converge and where literature, philosophy, history, and the arts are not just subjects of study but also dynamic forces that prepare students to meet an ever-evolving future. The Krebs Center underscores the College’s commitment to paving the way for a future where creativity, critical thinking, and empathy take center stage.
About Ragdale: Ragdale is an artist residency program located in Lake Forest, Illinois that provides time and space for artists to develop new works. Hosting more than 200 residencies annually, Ragdale is one of the largest creative communities in the United States and is driven by a commitment to social justice, environmental stewardship, and access for artists with disabilities. Comprising a series of historic homes, purpose-built studios, and access to 50 acres of protected prairie land, Ragdale provides artists with a remarkable environment to explore their work.