Dr Reham Hosny

UK Host Institution: University of Cambridge
Project status
Ongoing

Project

“Locked Up for Reading a Poem”: AI Poetics of Disguise and Literary Activism in the Arab World

The proposed project seeks to investigate the artificial intelligence (AI) potential to provide techniques and frameworks to underrepresented creative writers living under authoritarian regimes—Arab writers an example—to express political criticism of their regimes in literary texts without risking their lives. The AI poetics of disguise is introduced as an effective strategy to disguise political criticism in literature with the help of AI technology. I argue that using AI capabilities expands the conventional techniques of disguise and introduces innovative ones. This project’s methodology is based on investigating the most commonly used techniques of disguise in selected Arabic literary texts and the AI potential to go beyond such familiar techniques. Its critical orientation is grounded in social literary studies, digital media studies, gender studies and postcolonialism. The CFI at the University of Cambridge is the proposed research environment as a leading centre in researching the cultural and socio-political implications of AI.

Outputs and Media

'Lost History and overlooked Present: Mechanical and Artificial Intelligence in the Arabic culture'

Paper presented at Many Worlds of AI: Intercultural Approaches to the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge - April 2023

'DH and E-Lit Communities: Intersectional Perspectives'

Paper presented at the First Annual Event of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association - University of London, June 2023

'Al-Barrah: AI Literature and Horizons of Digital Post/colonial Feminism'

Paper presented at the Electronic Literature Organization Conference, Coimbra - July 2023

'Thoughts and Perspectives on Literary Activism and AI'

Narratives & Justice workshop, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, October 2023

'Dynamics and Politics of AI Literary Disguise: Exploring the Intersection of Literary Activism and AI'

Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence Seminar - October 2023

'AI Literary Disguise: Sociopolitics of Literary Activism in the AI Era'

PdOC Research Showcase - University of Cambridge, November 2023

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