The Geographies of Generative AI in Higher Education (RGS-IBG AIC 2026)
September 1 – September 4
*This event is part of the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2026. Exact session time and location will be confirmed in due course and updated here.
Session organisers: Kieran Phelan (University of Nottingham, UK) and Andrew Cook (University of Nottingham, UK)
Generative artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping practices of learning, teaching, and knowledge production in higher education (Pratschke, 2024, HEPI, 2025). The widespread use of large language models by both students and faculty presents fundamental challenges to established pedagogical norms, as well as academic integrity, and institutional governance (Bertram Gallant and Rettinger, 2025). As universities struggle to respond to these disruptions, significant shifts are emerging in assessment practices, curriculum (re)design, and integrity and assurance mechanisms, as well as everyday pedagogical cultures of teaching and learning.
Taking seriously the geographies of the university, this session invites critical reflection on how generative AI is reconfiguring the geographies of higher education; spatially, institutionally, ethically and relationally. Rather than focusing narrowly on technical or instrumental approaches such as prompt engineering, the session seeks to centre broader conceptual and empirical insights on how universities are being reshaped by cultures of artificial generativity, including changes in pedagogical spaces and cultures, shifts in students’ digital practices, as well as how forms of academic labour are being reimagined in response.
- experiences embedding critical AI literacy within geography degree programmes
- analysis of institutional AI strategies and responses
- critical AI politics and resistance amongst students and faculty
- approaches to governance, assurance, and academic integrity
- assessment redesign and curriculum innovation
- AI and student experience enhancement and student-voice projects