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Tuesday, 22 September 2026

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transparent, Accountable, Human? Open Seminar Series: Postplagiarism and the politics of research integrity after AI

Tuesday, 22 September, 2:00 PM » 5:30 PM
Course event

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Postplagiarism is a concept developed by recent scholarship in academic integrity to refer to the current educational landscape, where trying to distinguish between human and AI-assisted writing has turned into a pointless endeavour. It draws attention to the unsettling of historical understandings of plagiarism, authorship and scientific misconduct, while acknowledging the hybrid nature of the relationships between humans and technology within contemporary knowledge production practices such in research and academic publishing. Indeed, the controversies around what may count as acceptable uses of generative AI in academia have resulted in the updating of former integrity policies and the creation of specialised guidelines on AI by universities and publishers worldwide. Many of these appeal to ethical decision-making and awareness of the risks involved in using AI in academic contexts, as well as emphasizing the need for responsibility to remain solely human.
 
In this seminar, we will examine the main notions in AI ethics that become tenets of academic integrity, such as transparency and accountability, questioning the epistemological assumptions that remain uncontested under these principles. Furthermore, we will discuss about the im/possibility of agency under postplagiarism, taking a critical stance towards responsibility. The seminar considers showcasing an analysis of policy and policy networks on AI adoption in higher education, which will serve as a common ground for further discussion. Participants are encouraged to share their own experiences with the use of AI for research both in institutional and informal settings, reflecting about their own practices and the sentiments attached to AI and technology in academic work.
 
Stephanie Martinic-Caneo is a teacher in Philosophy and a Master and PhD candidate in Education from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research is focused the relationships between humans and technologies and their role in shaping new modes of educational governmentality. In her thesis, she asks about the consequences of generative AI and the AI political economy in academic knowledge production practices. She will be presenting the results of her joint work with Dr. Valentina Errázuriz Besa in a reading of postplagiarism from a posthumanist and postdigital lens.
 
Hybrid
Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze Pedagogiche, dell’Educazione e della Formazione - PhD in Education

From AI Detection to Responsible AI Practices in Doctoral Research Building a Community Framework for AI Use at SPEF

Tuesday, 22 September, 3:30 PM » 5:30 PM
Course event

Activity Organised and facilitated by the PhD Programme Coordination

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence has rapidly become embedded in doctoral research, yet institutional responses have often focused on detecting misconduct rather than supporting responsible academic practice. While universities increasingly produce guidelines on disclosure and academic integrity, doctoral researchers continue to navigate a complex landscape of emerging AI tools with limited opportunities to collectively reflect on their pedagogical, methodological and ethical implications.

The workshop also creates a space to discuss practical institutional needs emerging from everyday research practice, including access to trustworthy AI tools, support structures for responsible use, and future investments in shared digital infrastructure. Through a series of participatory design activities, we (the SPEF community) will map current AI practices, identify opportunities and risks across the research process, examine ambiguous or contested situations, and collaboratively define shared principles for responsible AI use within the doctoral community. Particular attention will be given to the conditions under which AI supports, rather than substitutes for, critical inquiry, methodological rigour and academic judgement.

Activities

The workshop will be based on anonymous, practice-based scenarios designed to stimulate discussion and explore the diversity of participants' perspectives, interpretations, and positionalities regarding the use of AI in doctoral research.

In short:

  • Exploring and discussing about current uses of AI across senior and doctoral research activities.
  • Identify practices that are broadly acceptable, practices requiring careful judgement, and practices that pose significant academic or ethical risks.
  • Launch a space to benchmark principles for responsible AI use that apply within the SPEF doctoral programme, and can be the based of a co-designed set of principles guiding action;
  • Identify support mechanisms and trusted contacts for discussing complex AI-related questions;
  • Prioritise institutional resources and AI services that would best support doctoral research -including using PhD funding-;
Guiding Principles

The workshop is grounded in five assumptions:

  • Responsible AI cannot be reduced to detection or compliance.
  • Academic integrity is a collective practice, not solely an individual responsibility.
  • AI should augment, rather than replace, scholarly judgement.
  • Responsible research requires transparency, reflexivity and critical engagement with AI systems.
  • Doctoral communities should actively participate in shaping the norms that govern their own research practices.
Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze Pedagogiche, dell’Educazione e della Formazione - PhD in Education