Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

Does AI Enhance or Hinder the Claremont Colleges’ Learning Environment?

Wed, October 14, 2026
Dinner Program
Steven Zhou, Tom Le, Monica Capra, Sarah Marzen, Joseph Osborn, Avaneesh Narla, and Yuval Avnur

Does AI enhance or hinder the learning environment at the Claremont Colleges? In this novel Ath evening, hosted in collaboration with the 7C Center for Teaching and Learning and the Honnold-Mudd Library, we feature faculty from across the 7Cs taking a side on this topic and presenting their arguments in a structured, competitive public forum debate format. Attendees will get to hear the strongest and most convincing arguments with evidence from both sides of this highly controversial topic, thus highlighting the state-of-the-art and ongoing challenges that we face in the use (or misuse) of Generative AI at our consortium. The event will feature spirited, constructive, and collegial debate that we believe will encourage everyone involved towards greater respectful disagreement and intellectual curiosity. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the debaters and learn more about ongoing AI-related initiatives at the 7Cs.

Steven Zhou (Moderator) is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at Claremont McKenna College. His research is in the application of multivariate statistics and data science (including natural language processing and generative AI) to questions of leadership, career development, and personality at work. 

Tom Le (PRO side) is an Associate Professor of Politics at Pomona College. His research focuses on demographics and security, how violence is legitimized in international relations, and developing a cradle-to-grave theory of how states utilize their populations for national security. 

C. Monica Capra (PRO side) is a Professor of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Her research investigates the complexities of human decision-making, involves interdisciplinary collaboration with data scientists and neuroscientists, and explores how advanced AI technologies can enhance behavioral and experimental research methodologies.

Sarah Marzen (PRO side) is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Department of Natural Sciences. Her research uses machine learning to better understand biological data, interprets biological organisms as machine learners, and uses science to produce societally positive results in scattered ways.

Joseph Osborn (CON side) is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Pomona College. He is an AI researcher exploring representations of interactivity for computational systems, drawing from his fine arts game design background and computer science training.

Avaneesh Narla (CON side) is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Sciences at Claremont McKenna College. His interdisciplinary research in physics, biology, and mathematics focuses on how individual elements interact to create complex collective behaviors.

Yuval Avnur (CON side) is a Professor of Philosophy at Scripps College. His research focuses on doubt, skepticism, and its history as it applies to everything from whether this is reality to how we get our news online these days.
 

Registration

This event is not yet open for registration.

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
385 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711

Contact

Phone: (909) 621-8244 
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