The Futures of Antiquity in an Age of Digital Data and AI

What can technology do for the study of the ancient world? And, in turn, what might antiquity and its study offer technology? These questions are all the more pressing as fast advances in AI are putting pressure on how we research, teach and learn about the ancient world, as well as on the academy at large. Classics has a long standing relationship with technology: in past decades, for example, ancient textual corpora were among the first to be digitized and archaeology has developed in tandem with evolving technology such as GIS and 3D. What new knowledge about antiquity has digital data enabled? How is AI transforming research and teaching? Are we filling gaps in new ways, or are new interpretations possible? How are ideas about humans, the past and future, learning and teaching, in which ancient thought, literatures and history have all long played a role, changing? What is the role of the ancient world in imagining a future with AI? 

This workshop brings together scholars of antiquity with data and AI experts to focus on various fields of Classics and issues of knowledge production and teaching practices. We will follow the thread of antiquity’s relationship with AI in a series of conversations, featuring scholars from literary and textual studies, historians working with big data and epigraphy papyrology, archaeologists using new technologies to study material culture and transforming heritage studies. These conversations will showcase what has been achieved already and what new insights might be possible—as well as what pitfalls might await us. 

Invited speakers include: Patrick Burns (NYU), Jennifer Devereaux (Harvard), Helma Dik (Chicago), Maurizio Forte (Duke), Chris Johanson (UCLA), Annie Lamar (UCSB), Myles Lavan (St Andrews), Leigh Lieberman (Princeton), Malloy Owen (SU), Chiara Palladino (Durham), Jonathan Prag (Oxford), Allen Romano (Khan Academy), Peter Shi (Lille), Heather Schmidt (OpenAI), Donna Zuckerberg (PA).

Friday November 14 2025

9 to 9:15 a.m.
Conference Introduction: Giovanna Ceserani

9:15 to 10:30 a.m. 
Introducing the Stakes: Antiquity, Research and Technology in the Academy
A panel with Helma Dik, Maurizio Forte and Chris Johanson

10:30 to 11 a.m.
Coffee Break

11 to 12:30 p.m.
What are we talking about when we talk about AI?
A workshop with Allen Romano and Heather Schmidt

1:30 to 3 p.m.
Coordinator: Christopher Krebs
  Ancient Literary Texts Digitized: Patrick Burns, Helma Dik and Annie Lamar
Discussants: Mark Algee-Hewitt and Sasha Barish

3:30 to 5 p.m.
Coordinator: Walter Scheidel
  Ancient Materiality, Digital Data and Ancient History: Chris Johanson, Leigh Lieberman, and Chiara Palladino
Discussants: Ed Tang and Nicole Constantine

Saturday November 15 2025

9 to 10:30 a.m.
Coordinator: Ian Morris
  Ancient Words in Matter and AI: Epigraphy, Papyri and History: Myles Lavan, Jonathan Prag, Peter Shi
Discussants: Hans Bork and Fenella Palanca

11 to 12:30 p.m.
Coordinator: Ann Duray
  Ancient Cultures and Future Heritages: Maurizio Forte, Leigh Lieberman and Chiara Palladino
Discussants: JJ Lugardo and Grant Parker 

1:30 to 3 p.m.
Coordinator: Miriam Kamil
  AI between Ancients and Moderns: Giovanna Ceserani, Jennifer Devereaux, and Malloy Owen
Discussants: Lara Arikan and Ian Morris 

3:30 to 5 p.m.
Coordinator: Donna Zuckerberg
  Philosophy and Pedagogy, Past and Future: Patrick Burns, Jennifer Devereaux, Annie Lamar
Discussants: Joy Connolly and Hyunjip Kim

5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Coordinators: Ceserani, Romano, Scheidel, and Schmidt
  Final discussion
Opened with responses by Emanuele Cresca  and Ann Duray