Senior Lecturer Barbara Spinelli Awarded A&S AI Research and Curriculum Fellowship for 2026–2027

Senior Lecturer Barbara Spinelli has been selected as a fellow in the A&S AI Research and Curriculum Fellows Program 2026–2027 for her project, AI Recommendations and Guidelines for Undergraduate Curriculum and Educational Experience.

The fellowship is offered through Columbia University's Arts and Sciences (A&S) AI Research and Curriculum Fellows Program, co-directed by Matthew Connelly, Vice Dean for AI Initiatives in Arts and Sciences and Professor of History, and Tian Zheng, Provost Senior Leadership Fellow and Professor of Statistics. The program aims to foster critical and innovative approaches to AI integration in teaching, curriculum development, research, and assessment, while supporting independent thinking, critical reflection, and active intellectual engagement.

Barbara Spinelli's project aims to develop context-specific Department of Italian recommendations and flexible AI policy options, with rationales for AI use, limited use, or non-use, supported by faculty workshops and pedagogical resources. Its broader goals are to foster critical, ethical, and reflective engagement with AI, explore innovative teaching and assessment practices, and support instructors in helping students develop AI awareness and responsible learning practices across the different courses and instructional contexts offered by the Department of Italian.

This project builds on insights and experience gained through Barbara Spinelli's ongoing research project, Cross-Digital Mediation: A Framework for the Critical Integration of GenAI in Multilinguals' Target-Language Writing, for which she received the aiX Faculty Fellowship 2026, led by Professor Tian Zheng. The fellowship was funded through a Google grant, with co-sponsorship from Columbia's Data Science Institute and Center for Teaching and Learning.