The Future of Humanity and Society
Today we are challenged to explore and navigate the impacts of a rapidly changing world on the human condition and student experience. San José State University is committed to leading this conversation through the Future of Humanity and Society initiative.
The rapid convergence of technology, politics, and geopolitics brings both excitement and uncertainty, and provides an opportunity for intentional deliberation and sense-making for our community. To meet this moment, we reaffirm our commitment to teaching and learning about social change and civic engagement, ensuring our campus remains a space for open dialogue and free speech while valuing diverse opinions.
The Future of Humanity and Society framework is an actionable initiative to shape collective learning as students confront new experiences, tensions, and differing perspectives. Through a series of events, we aim to blend our academic programs and the student experience with a compassionate, belonging-centered approach to equip our students and leaders for the challenges facing their lives, our democratic society, and our humanity.
Welcome to the 2025-2026 Future of Humanity & Society Faculty Ambassadors!
Signature Events
Past Events
Fall 2024
9/17/24 SJSU Votes Festival
9/17/24 Community Discussion for Refugees, Hosted by SJSU Campus Reading Program and Human Rights Institute
9/19/24 The Condition of Free Speech in America: A View from Silicon Valley
9/19/24 Politics and Progress in the South Bay Reception, SJSU Library Special Collections & Archives Exhibition
9/23/24 Spartan Speaker Series Presents: An Evening with Jordan Klepper
9/24/24 Digital Dialogues Book Club: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
9/28/24 Artificially Censored: The intersection of technology, censorship, and freedom of information
10/9/24 Dialogue Across Political Difference
10/10/24 Walking to A Good Country, Literature in the Age of Displacement, Hosted by
SJSU Campus Reading Program
10/16/24 Sports, Activism, and the Legacy of the 1968 of the 1968 Olympic Victory Salute Panel
10/16/24 2nd Annual SJSU Archival Film Festival: Politics & Progress on Campus, SJSU
Library Special Collections & Archives Exhibition
10/16/24 Workshop on Rethinking Facial Recognition
10/17/24 Data Feminism for AI: A Talk by Lauren Klein
10/24/24 State of Elections Security: Protecting Democracy in a Changing World
10/25/24 The Art Of Visual Storytelling: Gene Luen Yang Receives The 2024 John Steinbeck Award, In Conversation With Mark Siegel, First Second Books
10/29/24 Digital Dialogues Book Club: The Circle by Dave Eggers
10/30/24 Don Edwards Fall Lecture, featuring Cindy Chavez
10/30/24 Digital Twins: Implications for Public Decision Making
11/13/24 Bridging Perspectives: Understanding the Israel-Palestine Conflict
11/14/24 Undocumented Americans: A Conversation with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio |
Moderated by journalist José Antonio Vargas
11/15/24 SJSU School of Music and Department of Film and Theatre present: CABARET
12/5/24 Center for Literary Arts Presents: Tommy Orange
Spring 2025
1/28/25 Community Connections Fair and 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Center for Community Learning & Leadership
1/29/25 Digital Humanities Step 1: Identifying, Designing, or Imagining a Digital Project
2/18/25 SJSU Art Galleries Tuesday Night Lecture: Paola de la Calle
2/25/25 Becoming high school student researchers in the Age of AI: Insights from a student-led study of improving reading with chatbots
2/26/25 The Chicano Movement in the Santa Clara Valley, 1960-1975: An Author Talk
with Dr. Gregorio Mora-Torres
2/27/25 Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium: Chris Eidler, Greenlake Solutions, HP
3/5/25 CHHS Health TechQuity Conference 2025
3/6/25 SJSU Adobe Digital Literacy Day 2025
3/13/25 Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium: Maria Pizarro, Pizarro Consulting
3/19/25 The Epidemic of Loneliness: Faculty Research Panel, sponsored by College of Social Sciences
3/19/25 Careers in Tech for Non-Tech Majors
3/20/25 Regional PIT (Public Interest Technology) Career Resource Fair
3/24/25 AI for Good: Pan-Pacific Adobe Creative Jam
4/25/25 Spartan Digital Literacy Summit
5/7/25 AI Futures Symposium: On the Role of Creativity, Ethics, Assessment and Innovation in Public Education
5/7/25 QuickBites // AI in Creative Spaces
5/8/25 Center for Literary Arts Presents: Ted Chiang
5/16/25 A Conversation with the Authors of The AI Con, Dr. Emily M. Bender and Dr. Alex Hanna
5/27/25 Agentic AI: Shaping the Future of Autonomy, Innovation, and Society
