Applied Humane Studies
Using AI to ask the oldest human questions — what it means to be human, what a good life and a good society are — and to answer them across the divide between the sciences and the humanities.
An older, wider conversation
Long before the modern university split knowledge into departments, people across many cultures asked integrated questions about what it means to be human and how to live a life worth living. Applied humane studies returns to that older, wider conversation and asks it again with the methods and pressures of the present — including the question of what it means to be human in a world we share with the machines we have made.
What applied adds
The humanities are part of humane studies; they are not the whole of it. What is distinctive is the method: applied humane studies builds, measures, and tests. It treats the big human questions as things we can operationalize, experiment on, and learn from — not only theorize about. It is defined by three things at once:
- Breadth — the full humane spectrum: literature, philosophy, history, ethics, the arts, and social inquiry, rather than a single home discipline.
- Depth — genuine technical practice: building and rigorously evaluating AI systems, with experimental, quantifiable, falsifiable results.
- Mode — operationalized and student-driven at scale: undergraduates produce original, openly shared research, continuously since 2016.
Standing on the shoulders of neighbors
Applied humane studies stands on the shoulders of digital humanities, human-centered computing, human-centered AI, and interdisciplinary studies — fields we admire and draw on. What is distinctive is the refusal to choose between technical rigor and humane breadth: it pairs real AI engineering with the full range of humane inquiry, and insists on building and testing, not only theorizing. These fields are allies and predecessors, and the work is better for them.
Across the divides
The questions do not respect the boundary C.P. Snow drew between the two cultures, and neither does the work. Answering them well means connecting people who rarely share a room — researchers in frontier AI labs, scholars across the humanities and sciences, government standards bodies, and practitioners in industry. Building those channels is itself part of the practice. See the collaboration map →
Where it lives
Jon Chun co-founded applied humane studies at Kenyon College with Katherine Elkins, through the AI CoLab and its human-centered AI curriculum, launched in 2016. The program lives in Kenyon's Integrated Program in Humane Studies. Explore the program at humanestudies.org →
"Debating the system of values we wish these tools to align with is the first step."
Tanya Klowden & Terence Tao (Fields Medalist), engaging Chun & Elkins, IJHAC (2023)What is applied humane studies?
It takes the oldest humane questions and operationalizes them with modern AI — building, measuring, and testing, not only critiquing — across the full humane spectrum and with genuine technical depth.
How does it relate to digital humanities and human-centered AI?
It stands on their shoulders. What is distinctive is the refusal to choose between technical rigor and humane breadth: real AI engineering paired with the full range of humane inquiry, and a commitment to building and testing.
Who founded it, and where?
Jon Chun co-founded it with Katherine Elkins at Kenyon College through the AI CoLab and its human-centered AI curriculum, launched in 2016.