SMU Libraries is launching two new, forward-thinking cohort programs designed to help faculty understand, evaluate, and meaningfully integrate AI tools into both research and the classroom. These initiatives respond to one important question: How do we teach, research, and apply integrity in the age of AI? By bringing together faculty and librarians in collaborative, discipline-informed communities, these cohorts model a practical, networked approach to AI literacy: one in which instructors experiment, question, redesign, and learn together.
Peer-to-Peer Cohorts: A train-the-trainer model for research innovation
The Peer-to-Peer Cohorts emerged from last summer’s AI for Research Summer Cohort, where participating faculty worked with SMU librarians to explore how AI tools function within research workflows. After the summer concluded, 12 faculty members were invited to continue their work by leading a cohort in their own discipline. Each leader designed a research plan, assembled a cohort of colleagues, and proposed a budget for tool licenses and faculty stipends.
This year, four faculty-led cohorts were awarded to Janice Lindstrom (Music Therapy), Ömer Özak (Economics), Mike Chmielewski (Psychology) and Natalie Nanasi (Law). Throughout the year, these faculty leaders will guide their disciplinary communities in testing AI tools for research – an especially important task because AI’s performance varies dramatically depending on how different disciplines are represented in databases and open-access ecosystems. SMU Libraries will continue providing consultations and collaboration support, and at the end of the academic year, each cohort will submit a report recommending discipline-specific best practices. These findings will directly inform the Libraries’ long-term strategy for AI-enhanced research support at SMU.
AI and Research Assignments Cohort: Rethinking learning for the age of AI
SMU Libraries is introducing a new $1,000 faculty stipend to support instructors redesigning a research assignment for their Spring 2026 courses. The AI and Research Assignments Cohort will focus on teaching AI literacy, guiding students in the appropriate use of AI tools, and ensuring that critical reading, inquiry, and research habits persist amid rapid technological change. The group will meet in December and May, with findings published in a white paper in the SMU Scholar institutional repository. Participants include Rachel Ball-Phillips, who is redesigning a long-running final project in On the Edges of Empire by integrating AI research tools such as Consensus while shifting students toward tactile, historically grounded comparative zines; Charles Wuest, whose Introduction to Poetry assignment will incorporate AI platforms to help students research how poems illuminate contemporary issues, while emphasizing AI literacy and ethical boundaries; and Emily Nelms Chastain, who aims to integrate AI into a major historical research paper in United Methodist History, using AI to help students build research questions and plan their arguments.
Additional faculty members include Constantin Icleanu, who plans to use both RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) and non-RAG AI tools in Immigrant Representations in Contemporary Spanish Cinema to strengthen students’ thesis development and source evaluation; Meghan Johnson, who is revising the Writing and Reasoning research paper and annotated bibliography to address misinformation and credibility in the information landscape; and Brooke Ryan, who hopes to update the Applied Physiology & Sports Management senior project to emphasize responsible AI use in analyzing research studies while protecting critical thinking. Rounding out the cohort are Justin Childress, who is reimagining a graduate research assignment in The Context and Impact of Design so that AI becomes an explicit object of inquiry documented through evidence-based work rooted in local archives and fieldwork, and Zhihao Wu in Biological Sciences, who aims to strengthen students’ ability to verify claims, avoid hallucinations, prompt effectively, and deepen their understanding of research questions through carefully guided AI-assisted inquiry. Julia Anderson will also participate in the cohort as an instructor of Gender: Images and Perspectives, designing an open syllabus project to allow students to thoughtfully use generative AI for information seeking and drafting, prioritizing student learning to synthesize various source types for an interdisciplinary and intersectional understanding.
This post was written in collaboration with Megan Heuer, director of educational initiatives, and Carrie Johnston, director of research and scholarly initiatives, who lead the cohorts at SMU Libraries.