Current & Upcoming Labs | Humanities Lab

Upcoming Labs

Design for the Planet

Students will explore how design shapes the environmental and social systems around us and question why we create so many unnecessary things. Examining industries from fashion to healthcare, they investigate resource extraction, labor practices, and cycles of waste and pollution. Working collaboratively, students develop experiential projects and propose sustainable, systems-level solutions that create meaningful civic impact.

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Fall 2026

Dramatizing Democracy

Students will explore how persuasion, storytelling, and performance shape civic life and public trust. From protest speeches and presidential debates to powerful scenes in theatre, they examine how rhetoric can inspire, divide, or blur the line between fact and fiction. Working collaboratively, students conduct interdisciplinary research and create public-facing projects such as performances, community dialogues, or media tools that connect creative inquiry with civic action.

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Ethics of Ownership?

Students will explore what it means to own something and question what should or should not be considered ownable. Through real-world cases, from gene patents and creative works to water rights and nonhuman beings, they examine the ethical consequences of ownership and consider whether it protects or exploits. Working collaboratively, students conduct stakeholder interviews and develop a research-based project that contributes to the public good.

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Humanizing Our Digital Futures

Students will explore what it means to be human in a world shaped by algorithms, data, and artificial intelligence. Examining how digital technologies influence identity, creativity, and community, they consider how innovation can foster more ethical and equitable futures. Working collaboratively, students design research-based proposals or prototypes that address real-world challenges while keeping human experience at the center.

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Mitigating Wildlife Conflicts

Students will explore how humans and wildlife can share land more sustainably, focusing on Arizona case studies such as the reintroduction of Mexican gray wolves. Through collaborative, transdisciplinary research that includes fieldwork, policy analysis, and ecological storytelling, they examine ecological, cultural, and ethical tensions. Working in teams, students design public-facing interventions that address competing values and reimagine coexistence between people, other species, and the landscapes they share.

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Migration, Art and Places

Students will explore migration to the United States and Western Europe, examining the forces that shape human movement and the ways communities respond. Focusing on cultural expression, belonging, and contemporary challenges, the lab engages Phoenix as one case study among others. Through discussion, fieldwork, and creative inquiry, students think critically, engage diverse perspectives, and cultivate compassionate civic understanding.

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Current Labs

Diplomacy Lab: Brazil

This Humanities Lab focuses on working collaboratively across disciplines to investigate current climate change challenges in Brazil that specifically affect marginalized urban communities (ex. democracy, human rights, health, energy security, economic policy, and conflict).

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Spring 2025

Printing el Pueblo: A Recovery

Faculty, museum curator, and students will collaborate to create a collection handbook to accompany an exhibition at the ASU Art Museum of the Hispanic Research Center’s art collection. This exhibition aims to elevate Latinx Printmaking and the ways it has shaped American art. The students will gain knowledge of artistic preservation and curation as well as formal and thematic elements of Latinx art. Student teams will draft, write, design, and publish a catalog for the exhibition as their course outcome.

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Spring 2025

Humanizing Digital Culture

Working together, Lab participants consider how digital culture is (re)shaping human identity and investigate the dual power of humankind's relationship to technology to create empathy while also causing real-world harm. What does it mean to be human in a digital world? How does digital identity determine how we relate to each other and the planet? How do we define and demonstrate human identity now and in the future?

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Spring 2025

Intro to Interdisciplinary Research

Students in this Lab will learn about interdisciplinary research, develop skills of collaboration, learn helpful research tools, exercise creative problem solving skills, and develop a team inquiry project focused on complex social challenges. Each session students will be working hands-on and minds-on in a workshop-like environment as we work through what the concepts & practices above mean and how to use various tools to help us meet our objectives.

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Spring 2025

Seeking Truth: Misinformation

From ancient to modern times, false narratives persist, though today they are amplified by the digital era and its numerous tools (ex. AI) and platforms (ex. TikTok). This surge has profound global to local repercussions, impacting media, politics, science, and economics while eroding trust in institutions, between communities, and affecting individual behaviors.

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Spring 2025

Upcoming Labs

Educating for Democracy

Students will explore how schools can prepare young people to thrive as active participants in a pluralistic democracy. By examining the purpose of education and past innovations, they will reimagine schooling to foster student agency, civic engagement, and sustainable futures. Participants will design initiatives that connect learning to democratic action and community well-being. This Lab is part of the Create the Change and Cultivating Civic Virtues through Action series.

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Fall 2025

Growing Biodiverse Culture

Students will explore the health and environmental challenges of globalized food systems while collaborating with agricultural stewards from ASU Farm and international partners. Through hands-on projects, they will research strategies for preserving biocultural heritage and share solutions for building healthier, more sustainable food futures. This Lab is part of the ASU Farm and Cultivating Civic Virtues through Action series.

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Fall 2025

Humanizing Digital Culture

Students will explore how digital culture shapes human identity, relationships, and our connection to the planet. Working in teams, they will investigate questions of empathy, harm, and the future of technology, then design strategies to humanize digital tools and practices.

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Fall 2025

Justice Through School Gardens

Engage with on-campus gardens and the roles they play in realizing civic virtues related to ecological awareness, social equity, educational opportunity, and community well-being as well as the historical, cultural, and ethical dimensions underlying them. Work in partnership with local schools and community gardens. Participants will design and implement projects that connect learning to real-world impact. *This course is part of the ASU Farm and Cultivating Civic Virtues through Action series of Humanities Labs.

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Fall 2025

Re-envisioning Food Systems

Students will investigate the challenges of creating sustainable local food systems through hands-on experience at a small-scale farm. Working in teams, they will explore the potential of desert ecosystems, design creative interventions, and document lessons learned in a collaborative case study. This Lab is part of the ASU Farm and Cultivating Civic Virtues through Action series.

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Fall 2025

Current Labs

Accessible Urban Farming

Students will explore issues of accessibility, equity, and inclusion in local food systems through hands-on work with urban farms and school gardens. Engage directly with farmers and community partners to understand how access to fresh, healthy food shapes quality of life. Participants will design projects that promote awareness and foster more equitable, sustainable food communities.

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Spring 2026

Global AZ: Development Futures

Examine how global development challenges connect to Arizona and local communities. Guided by interdisciplinary experts, students engage with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and design collaborative projects that link global concerns to local action. The course culminates in public-facing outcomes that promote wellbeing and shared prosperity.

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Humanizing Digital Culture

This Humanities Lab explores how digital culture shapes human identity and our relationship with technology. Students will investigate digital identity, empathy, and real-world impacts while developing strategies to humanize digital technologies.

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Harnessing AI for Good?

Explore how artificial intelligence is shaping healthcare, criminal justice, and education while raising urgent ethical and policy questions. This course invites students to critically examine AI’s foundations, assess its societal impact, and collaboratively design frameworks for a more just and ethical future.

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Intro to Interdisciplinary Research

Students in this Lab will learn about interdisciplinary research, develop skills of collaboration, learn helpful research tools, exercise creative problem solving skills, and develop a team inquiry project focused on complex social challenges.

View more information HERE

Seeking Truth: Misinformation

From ancient to modern times, false narratives persist, though today they are amplified by the digital era and its numerous tools (ex. AI) and platforms (ex. TikTok). This surge has profound global to local repercussions, impacting media, politics, science, and economics while eroding trust in institutions, between communities, and affecting individual behaviors.

View more information HERE