Hands-on Workshop: Applying GenAI Tools to Scholarly Writing – Nov. 12, 2026

Promotional poster for AI and Scholarly Writing Workshop on Nov 12, 2026.

Session Description

November 12 2026 @ 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

Generative AI can produce a paragraph faster than most of us can plan one. The harder question is which parts of scholarly writing can be delegated without loss, and which parts are where judgement actually gets formed. 

This in-person hands-on workshop treats the researcher as an architect of research and a designer of text as well as its executor, working through a requirements-first method: specifying constraints, prompting, refining, verifying, and curating. Hands-on activities will cover:

  • Reading a source through a model without losing it to hermeneutic drift – the gradual replacement of what a text says with a reflection of the reader's own framing
  • Recognising the recurring lexical, rhythmic, and structural patterns that make generated prose identifiable regardless of the style requested
  • Setting a defensible line between assistance and delegation, including how that line gets disclosed and justified to others.
Presenter: Dr. Paolo Granata is a Professor of Book and Media Studies at the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College and a Fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. An award-winning educator and internationally recognized media scholar, his work spans media ecology, semiotics, educational technologies, and philosophy of technology. He is the founder and director of the Media Ethics Lab and has held academic positions in Canada, Italy, Brazil, and China. His latest book is Generative Knowledge: Think, Learn, Create with AI (Wiley, 2026).
Intended audience: 
  • This workshop is designed for faculty researchers and their research teams from any discipline. No specific technical background is required, though a basic familiarity with GenAI concepts is encouraged.
  • This is a limited enrollment workshop. Preference will be given to faculty researchers.
Location: This workshop will take place in-person at the Centre for Research & Innovation Support (9 King’s College Circle)
Registration Timeline:
  • Deadline to apply: October 2nd 
  • Participants will be notified: October 9th 

Details

Date:
November 12 2026
Time:
9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Registration Website:
https://cris.eve.utoronto.ca/home/events/7175

Venue

Name: Centre for Research & Innovation Support Address: 9 King’s College Circle Toronto Ontario M7A 1A5

Learning Objectives

After this session, attendees will be able to:

  • Distinguish writing tasks where only the output matters from those where the process is part of the result and justify that division
  • Apply a requirements-first workflow to a text in progress, verifying the output against the original requirements rather than against how good it sounds
  • Detect and edit against a model's stylistic signature, recognising the recurring patterns in generated text
  • Identify hermeneutic drift when using an LLM to read sources and apply a verification step that returns to the source
  • Draft a personal or lab-level protocol on AI use covering disclosure, what will not be delegated, and who is answerable for the final claim

Additional Information

Technology requirements:  

  • Participants are required to bring a laptop and charger.
  • The session will feature the University of Toronto's protected version of Microsoft Copilot, freely available to all UofT faculty, staff, and students. Information on accessing the tool can be found on the CTSI site: https://teaching.utoronto.ca/tool-guides/microsoft-copilot/
  • Additional details about AI tools will be shared with approved attendees prior to the workshop.
  • Participants may bring a piece of writing in progress (e.g., abstract, grant section, literature review, response to reviewers) and work on it live using the UofT's protected version of Microsoft Copilot, or an alternative freemium or premium tool of their choice such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Kimi, or DeepSeek.

Participants are encouraged to review the recording of the Introduction to GenAI for Supporting Scholarly Writing webinar (Feb. 26, 2026) before attending, particularly if they did not attend the live session. Familiarity with the concepts covered in that webinar will help participants get the most out of the hands-on portions of this workshop.