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TLC Focused Inquiry Groups, 2025

AI and Open WebUI Working Group

Building on Fall 2025’s AI workshop series, this Focused Inquiry Group, led by TLC Fellow Zach Muhlbauer, shifts from policy and critique to practice and experimentation through engagement with Open WebUI, an emerging open-source AI platform used by researchers at the CUNY Graduate Center. This FIG seeks to cultivate a community of practice among graduate students who will document, test, and refine approaches to integrating open-source AI infrastructure into their research or teaching while contributing to the disciplinary and pedagogical formation of the Open WebUI platform.

No prior knowledge of generative AI or large language models (LLMs) is required. However, we do ask that participants be willing to experiment and tinker under the hood with open digital tools.

Participants will be paid a $500 stipend.

We welcome applicants who demonstrate:

  • Interest in instructional design, digital pedagogy, and/or open educational resources
  • A conscientious approach to generative AI within their research or academic discipline
  • Commitment to collaborative documentation and reflection on teaching experiments
  • Willingness to engage critically with the possibilities & limitations of AI tools in education

Eligibility
To be a currently enrolled Graduate Center student.

Requirements
FIG participants will meet at least once a month throughout the Spring 2026 semester.

How To Apply
Email a single PDF to [email protected] by Monday, October 13, 2025.
Name your file: LastName_OpenWebUIFIG26.pdf

This document should contain:

  • A two-page CV
  • A statement of interest (maximum 500 words) that responds to these prompts:
    • What kinds of encounters, practices, or projects have shaped your experience with generative AI so far?
    • How do you understand its emerging impact on your discipline, and in what ways might you approach this impact through experimentation, tinkering, or critical intervention?
    • What specific research questions, pedagogical challenges, or scholarly projects of yours might benefit from participating in this working group?

If you have questions, please contact Zach Muhlbauer at zmuhlbauer@gradcenter.cuny.edu.

Queer Pedagogies

Queer and trans theory values a multitude of knowledges that help illuminate the invisible structures of society by examining the body, identity, failure, and change. Through exploration of key texts and methods of queer and trans life, we aim to create larger spaces for living and learning. In a political moment that seeks to create ever-more rigid public spaces and sentiments, we ask how can we use the analyses and methods of queer/trans studies to care for our students, destabilize patriarchal, hetero-, and cis-normative structures in the classroom, and make space to thrive?

This is a Focused Inquiry Group, led by TLC Fellow Danielle Bennett, for students of all genders and sexualities to consider the guidance of queer and trans theorists and practitioners that we can take into our classrooms to create compassionate, engaged, and resilient class experiences. We will read some classic texts and consider what “queering” or “transing” knowledge can bring to your classroom, and we will take inspiration from scholars and activists that found ways to create joy and thrive despite restrictive or hostile circumstances. Our efforts will culminate in a reflective and portable project that can be shared and iterated on with others.

Participants will be paid a $500 stipend.

Eligibility
To be a currently enrolled Graduate Center student.

Requirements
FIG participants will meet once a month throughout the Spring 2026 semester. At least three meetings will be in person. Meeting dates will be determined based on group members’ schedules. By the end of the semester, participants will produce a collaboratively determined set of public-facing artifacts (such as a tool-kit, a Visible Pedagogy blog series, or a themed set of additions to the TLC Assignment Library) on the topic.]

How To Apply
Email a single PDF to [email protected] by Monday, November 3, 2025.
Name your file: LastName_QPFIG25.pdf

This document should contain:

  • A two-page CV.
  • A short paragraph response (300-500 words) to the following prompt:
    • What might “queering” your classroom look like?
    • Have you ever used queer or trans methods in your teaching or research?

If you have questions, please contact Danielle Bennett at dbennett@gradcenter.cuny.edu.