Adaptation Studies in the Light of Generative AI

Association of Adaption Studies

Generative AI has upended ways of visualizing, reading, and interpreting texts, whether in makerspaces, on publishing platforms, or on college campuses. The use of generative AI raises questions about authorship, copyright, authenticity, originality, and integrity—all critical matters that lie at the heart of Adaptation Studies scholarship. This roundtable aims to solicit submissions on the ways that generative AI is changing the landscape of literary adaptation, as well as the problems and possibilities inherent in the use of generative AI platforms (ChatGPT, Bing, Dall-E2, Synthesia, etc) in both teaching and research. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Incorporating generative AI tools and/or AI-authored content into adaptations
• Impacts of AI on creative and scholarly labor
• AI-driven research in Adaptation Studies (e.g. text or image analysis)
• Pedagogical applications of generative AI in the Adaptations Studies classroom
• Ethical considerations when employing AI in teaching and/or research

Paper presentations will be short (max. 10-minute) to leave plenty of time for discussion. Please send 250-word abstract to Beth Coggeshall (ecoggeshall@fsu.edu).

Seeing Beyond Seen and Unseen

Association of Adaption Studies

“Seen and Unseen,” the theme of SAMLA 96, focuses on the tasks of discovering, uncovering, and recovering material that may have escaped earlier notice. The study of adaptation sharpens this duality further. Cinematic and theatrical adaptations famously present visuals that audiences for literary texts have previously had to visualize for themselves. Adaptations that censor the texts they adapt seek to replace old ways of seeing with new by concealing matters they think better unseen. Reparative adaptations seek to heal cultural traumas by shining new light on old assumptions about power and status. Cross-lingual and cross-cultural adaptations allow members of one linguistic or cultural community to attempt to see into another. Adaptations that depend on AI-generated words or images extend the boundaries that limit what adaptations can help us see.

This series of panels, sponsored by the Association of Adaptation Studies, welcomes submissions on any aspect of adaptation studies. We are especially interested in presentations that complicate or challenge the duality of seen and unseen, emphasizing the power of adaptations to allow audiences to see (broadly speaking) the hitherto unseen or unseeable, to avoid seeing things someone thinks they shouldn’t see, or to recast the duality in even more provocative terms. Please send queries, suggestions, or abstracts of 250–500 words, along with A/V requirements, scheduling requests, and brief bios, to Thomas Leitch (University of Delaware) at tleitch@udel.edu and/or Beth Coggeshall (Florida State University) at ecoggeshall@fsu.edu by 15 July 2024.