Meredith Martin, humanities faculty featured in story on humanities teaching in the AI age
20 October 2025
AI use is becoming increasingly common among students. (Renee Cargill / The Daily Princetonian)
Nikki Han, Daily Princetonian
Oct. 1, 2025
In a memo sent to faculty this summer, Dean of the College Michael Gordin was blunt: “this is the moment to reevaluate what you do and how you do it.”
The numbers, Gordin wrote, showed sharp increases in generative AI use. According to data from entering students, more than half of the Class of 2028 said they had “rarely or never” used such products in the class year. In the Class of 2029, which had access to ChatGPT and other generative AI throughout most of high school, that figure was 28 percent.
“If students, especially the generation that’s coming in right now, went through high school using [AI], it’s going to be really, really hard for them to stop,” said Meredith Martin, an English professor and faculty director of the Center for Digital Humanities.
For many users, generative AI has revolutionized coding, automated simple tasks like emails, and outstripped Google search as a reference tool.
But for humanities professors, the new tools have generated significant anxiety. “Will the humanities survive artificial intelligence?” Professor of History D. Graham Burnett asked in The New Yorker this spring.
In interviews with The Daily Princetonian, humanities professors discussed how they have adapted their classrooms to fit the new world of ChatGPT. Some professors are outright banning AI, turning assessments that used to be papers into in-class exams. Others are trying to work alongside AI, asking students to be transparent when they have used AI in research and writing. Others still are encouraging AI use and embracing its potential. And yet, they all expressed fears that AI could deeply impact critical thinking and writing.
“For a long, long time, writing has been a way that we’ve had of teaching thinking,” Professor of English and the English department’s Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies Jeff Dolven told the ‘Prince.’
Read the full feature on The Daily Princetonian: https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2025/10/princeton-news-broadfocus-artificial-intelligence-humanities-professors