Giving Voice to Generative AI Refusal in Rhetoric and Writing Studies

by Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre

Shownotes

We conclude with our show notes, which contain both our vision for the future of this podcast project and our references. This podcast project will continue to be a space where we think aloud about generative AI refusal and how generative AI prompts us (no pun intended) to rethink our relationship to tech inevitability and educational technology as writing teachers.

As we move forward, we're thinking about two kinds of episodes for the podcasts:

• Interview episodes, like the one with Dr. Michael Black, in which we have a chance to talk with teachers and scholars, mostly in writing studies and higher education, about the impact of generative AI on teaching broadly and teaching writing more specifically.
• Episodes focused on books, articles, and news about generative AI. These episodes will feature our friend and colleague Dr. Kat Gray, and we'll "do the reading" with listeners in ways that illuminate the issues and concerns raised in our interviews. For example, after our conversation with Dr. Black, we will revisit Amy J. Wan's (2014) Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times with generative AI in mind.

If we are concerned about Silicon Valley taking over public education (and we really, really are), how might we revisit writing instruction in relation to Google, Microsoft, and learning management systems like Blackboard and Canvas? Even as these technologies and companies seem totalizing, where else might we imagine refusal? These are not easy questions. There are no easy answers. Yet we are energized by the possibility of circling back, of revision, of re-seeing critical AI and digital literacies and our pedagogies with refusal in mind. This is the conversation we want to have going forward. This is the conversation we need.