Upcoming Labs
Cultivating Linguistic Justice
Cultivating Linguistic Justice begins with a simple but challenging question: If language variation is a natural feature of all languages, then why (and how) are linguistic differences used to discriminate and marginalize? Together, students will investigate how language variation shapes experiences in schools, healthcare, workplaces, media, the legal system, and everyday life.
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Spring 2027
How is Sound Democratic?
Through collaborative research and experimentation, students will examine these practices while considering how listening, participation, leadership, and shared meaning-making influence who is heard, who belongs, and how communities respond to social fragmentation and loneliness.
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Mapping Gaps in Urban Health
How is health among urban communities measured and understood, and why does it matter? In this Humanities Lab, students will investigate how we come to know and understand the health of urban communities. Students will analyze real-world data alongside community perspectives.
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Reclaiming the Future of Food
How can food traditions from different times and places inform the futures we choose to build? In this UNESCO BRIDGES and ASU Farm partnered Humanities Lab, students will collaborate with peers from the University of Wales Trinity St. David to compare Indigenous food traditions in the American Southwest with revitalized Celtic foodways in Wales.
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(Un)Plugging Childhood
Does childhood feel different today than it did fifteen years ago? In this Humanities Lab, students will investigate what kinds of childhood we are creating by examining how families, schools, communities, technology, and public policies shape children’s lives across generations.
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Intro Interdisciplinary Research
Where does meaningful research begin? It begins with curiosity, good questions, and a willingness to tackle complex challenges from more than one perspective. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students investigate a real-world challenge of their choosing while learning how to ask stronger research questions, evaluate evidence, navigate uncertainty, and design ethical approaches to inquiry.
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Humanizing Our Digital Future
Are today’s technologies creating the future we actually want? In this Humanities Lab, students will investigate how people design, use, adapt, and govern digital technologies, and how those technologies, in turn, shape our relationships, communities, institutions, and the futures we imagine.
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Current 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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