Researchers from the Digital Experiments Lab, representing the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, took part in the international conference “AI in Writing Pedagogy: Shaping Instruction in a Changing Landscape”, held on June 17–18, 2026 at Mälardalen University in Västerås, Sweden.
Mälardalen University is UITM’s partner institution within the SUNRISE European Universities Alliance. The visit was carried out as part of the Scientists on the Move.
Dr Iwona Leonowicz-Bukała and Dr Mikołaj Birek from the College of Media and Social Communication delivered a peer-reviewed, two-hour interactive workshop entitled “Hands-on Visual AI: Teaching Bias and Critical AI Literacy in Writing Classrooms”. Participants – academic writing researchers and instructors from more than a dozen countries – worked with visual generative AI tools, treating them not as productivity aids but as objects of critical inquiry. The workshop combined:
- prompt design and comparative analysis of AI-generated images,
- reflective writing tasks revealing how generative models reproduce – and sometimes amplify – social biases, stereotypes and dominant narratives,
- ready-to-adapt classroom exercises and discussion frameworks for participants’ own teaching practice.
The workshop scenario drew on the Lab’s original research, including experiments on the representation of people with disabilities in AI-generated images (Folia Sociologica, 2025) and the digital experiment methodology presented at the Polish Methodological Conference of Media Researchers.
The two-day programme also featured keynote lectures by Prof. Thomas Mandl (University of Hildesheim), Prof. Marije Michel (University of Groningen) and Prof. Steven L. Thorne (Portland State University), alongside sessions on human–AI co-authorship, academic integrity and institutional AI policies. A shared conclusion of the event was that writing pedagogy should teach not only how to use AI, but above all how to understand it critically.
Participation in the conference resulted in direct contacts with researchers from the SUNRISE partner university and from institutions across Europe, North America and Asia, opening prospects for joint research, grant applications and teaching collaboration between UITM and Mälardalen University. The Digital Experiments Lab team also plans to contribute an article based on the workshop to a peer-reviewed special issue of the journal AAA – Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik devoted to AI in writing pedagogy (spring 2028).
Through engagement in international academic exchange, the Digital Experiments Lab continues to develop interdisciplinary approaches to critical AI literacy and the role of generative artificial intelligence in education and communication.
