The "Human Intelligence" initiative champions the Faculty’s program offerings and launches a new suite of online courses to be delivered in 2026 that emphasizes the importance of human agency and meaningful decision-making. By engaging students in experiential learning, the courses empower them to confront and reshape deterministic narratives about their futures.
Kevin Kee, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, highlights, “This campaign is not just about adapting to change; it’s about leading it. We aim to equip students with the tools to use and critically engage with technology while fostering their innate human capacities.”
With courses ranging from ethics to digital cultures, students will deepen their understanding of the complexities of modern life. The Faculty of Arts invites prospective students to join this transformative journey, where they will learn to envision and create a better future.
“We aim to equip students with the tools to use and critically engage with technology while fostering their innate human capacities”
Kevin Kee
— Dean of the Faculty of Arts
An initiative designed with student input
To help assess the interest of students in courses and programs that encourage reflection, judgment and action, the faculty put out a call out to uOttawa students of all ages, and over a thousand responded.
“We invited 25 to our black box theatre,” explains Dean Kee. “We handed them a series of first-person statements about their futures and asked them to respond while the cameras rolled. We witnessed them listening and hearing, reading and understanding, nurturing and empowering others, and most especially, connecting. They connected with us, with one another, and made clear their commitment to human talent in support of human freedom. In their own words, they made the case for what you see here: ‘Human Intelligence.’”
These videos became part of an inspiring campaign titled Futures Foretold, led by Dean Kee and Marc Charron, Senior Advisor to the Faculty, Strategic Initiatives and developed in collaboration with Fractal Communications, that have been disseminated on social media and been very well received. “What we observed in the black box was inspiring,” says Ali Rahman who collaborated on the project. “As students recognized the common thread, our shrinking autonomy in the face of algorithms, they didn’t just accept it. They pushed back, voicing passionate, thoughtful arguments for free will, agency, and the uniquely human right to shape our own futures.”
The faculty’s “Human Intelligence” initiative underlines the need for agency as we embrace a world where human and artificial intelligence interactions grow daily, and, as Dean Kee wrote, it highlights the value of a liberal arts education in 2025.
For more information on the project, please visit Human Intelligence.