CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
AI AND THE IMAGINATION
April 20–23, 2027
Oral Roberts University | Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Proposal deadline: March 5, 2027
Rolling review; applicants will normally receive a decision within two weeks.
In-person presentations only.

Featuring Orson Scott Card, award-winning author of Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead, with keynote speakers Pat Gelsinger, Joan Slonczewski, and Ben John.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

Oral Roberts University invites proposals for AI and the Imagination from participants across disciplines and professions. We welcome research, critical reflection, creative work, and practical applications. Students, faculty, researchers, educators, industry professionals, practitioners, faith leaders, writers, and artists are encouraged to contribute.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we learn, work, create, and understand ourselves. The conference brings together conversations that too often occur separately, offering an opportunity to share ideas and experiences, question assumptions, and consider how our choices today will shape the years ahead. Interdisciplinary contributions are particularly encouraged.

CONFERENCE TRACKS

1. AI and the Imagination
How have we imagined artificial intelligence, and how is artificial intelligence changing imagination itself? This signature track welcomes work involving science fiction, fantasy, film, literature, art, storytelling, speculative futures, AI-assisted creativity, and the ways imaginative works can help us understand possible technological futures.

2. AI, Theology, and Ethics
What theological, philosophical, and ethical questions arise from increasingly capable artificial intelligence? This track welcomes work on Christian theology and AI, ethics, human dignity, personhood, moral agency, wisdom, responsibility, vocation, technology and faith, and related philosophical or religious questions.

3. AI, Human Agency, and Formation
How does AI change what it means to think, choose, act, develop, and become? This track explores human agency in an age of increasingly capable AI, including cognitive and agency offloading, judgment and decision-making, autonomy, dependence, human-AI relationships, meaning, purpose, identity, formation, and human flourishing.

4. AI and Teaching and Learning
How is AI changing education and the work of teaching and learning? Topics may include pedagogy, assessment, academic integrity, AI literacy and fluency, faculty development, student learning, educational technology, curriculum design, personalized learning, and emerging models of education.

5. AI, Society, and the Human Future
What does widespread AI mean for individuals, communities, institutions, and society? Topics may include work, economics, culture, politics, law, relationships, inequality, democracy, social institutions, public policy, and the broader consequences of AI for the human future.

6. AI, Leadership, Strategy, and Governance
How should leaders make decisions in an AI-rich environment? This track welcomes work addressing leadership, organizational strategy, institutional transformation, governance, policy, risk, workforce development, and responsible AI adoption.

7. AI, Research, Discovery, and Innovation
How is AI transforming the process of discovery and the creation of new knowledge? This track includes AI-enabled research, interdisciplinary research methods, scientific discovery, innovation, entrepreneurship, and emerging approaches to scholarship and creative inquiry.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please include:

• Presentation title
• A 250–500-word abstract outlining the topic, approach, and main contribution of the proposed presentation
• Preferred conference track
• Presenter name(s) and institutional or professional affiliation, if applicable
• Contact email(s)
• Whether you plan to read a paper or give a presentation using slides

A full paper or slide deck is not required at the proposal stage.

Email proposals by March 5, 2027, to either conference co-organizer:

Dr. Andrew Lang
Dean, College of Science and Engineering
Senior Professor of Mathematics
Oral Roberts University
alang@oru.edu

Dr. Mark Hall
Dean, J.D. McKean Library
Senior Professor of English
Oral Roberts University
mhall@oru.edu

Proposals will be reviewed as they are received. Early submissions are encouraged.

PRESENTATION FORMAT

All presentations will be delivered in person. Standard sessions allow 15 minutes for presentation followed by 5 minutes for questions and discussion.

Accepted abstracts will be included in the online conference program. The conference will not publish formal proceedings or full papers.

REGISTRATION

Registration is required for all attendees, including accepted presenters. Please consult the conference website for registration information, hotel recommendations, schedule updates, and additional details.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Orson Scott Card
Award-winning author of Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead.

Pat Gelsinger
Executive chair and head of technology at Gloo, general partner at Playground Global, and former CEO of Intel and VMware. His career spans more than 45 years in engineering and technology leadership.

Joan Slonczewski, PhD
Award-winning science fiction author and Professor of Biology at Kenyon College. Their novels include A Door into Ocean, Brain Plague, The Highest Frontier, and Minds in Transit. Their work explores evolution, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and the future of intelligent life.

Ben John, PhD
Chief Technology Officer of Digital Turbine and former Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft AI, where he led the Copilot data platform. He previously served as CTO of AppNexus and Xandr.

We are imagining more than the future of AI. We are imagining who we will become.

Come imagine it with us in Tulsa.

Conference website:
https://oru.edu/academics/cose/ai-and-the-imagination/