Civic Engagement and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence

The Civic Engagement lecture series is an ongoing series with an overarching goal to highlight individuals who use their time and talent to create space for others to be civically engaged in unique ways. The April panel, Civic Engagement and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence, will focus on the opportunities and challenges of generative AI as a tool for public information.

This panel will feature:

• Jim Langevin, Congressman; Distinguished Chair, Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies, Rhode Island College
• Jim Ludes, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Salve Regina University
• Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication Studies, Harrington School of Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island; Founder, Media Education Lab

Join us on Monday, April 28 from 5 - 7 p.m. This event will be the first of three Civic Engagement panel discussions for the RI Department of State in 2025.

Meet the Panelists

Jim Langevin

First elected in 2000, Congressman Jim Langevin served for 22 years representing Rhode Island’s 2nd congressional district. He was a senior member of the House Committees on Armed Services and Homeland Security, paving the way to harness more innovative technologies to solve our nation’s most complex challenges.

He played an essential role securing the infrastructure and resources needed to make cybersecurity a top policy priority by founding the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus and authoring the National Cyber Director Act, which led to the installation of a National Cyber Director at the White House and creation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

He is now the Distinguished Chair of the newly established Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies at Rhode Island College, his alma mater.

Jim Ludes

Dr. Jim Ludes is Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI, as well as Executive Director of the University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy. In addition, he is executive producer and co-host of “Story in the Public Square,” an eight-time Telly Award-winning, weekly, public affairs program broadcast on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel as well as on public television stations across the country. The show is part of a broader Pell Center initiative to study, celebrate, and tell stories that matter.

Over a 30 year career, Dr. Ludes has worked at the intersection of academia, politics, and national security. In those years, he worked as Legislative Assistant for defense and foreign policy to then-Senator John Kerry, advised the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama, led the Obama-Biden transition team’s processes for winning Senate confirmation of Department of Defense nominees for the roles of Deputy Secretary of Defense; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Comptroller; and General Counsel. Those political experiences notwithstanding, Ludes built the American Security Project, a Washington, DC, think-tank, into a leading voice of a principled, bipartisan approach to national security. Jim’s research today focuses on foreign disinformation in American politics. He speaks regularly on the topic and publishes, through the Pell Center, “The Active Measures Newsletter,” as well as “The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast”—weekly examinations of the best reporting on the topic.

Renee Hobbs
Renee Hobbs is one of the world’s leading authorities on digital and media literacy education. As a teacher, researcher, activist, and media professional, she has offered programs for educators on four continents and produced some of the leading empirical research on the subject. She has published more than 200 scholarly and professional publications on digital and media literacy education, digital learning, contemporary propaganda, and copyright and fair use. Renee Hobbs is the author of 12 books including Media Literacy in Action (2025), Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age (2020), and The International Encyclopedia on Media Literacy (2019). She is also the founding co-editor of the Journal of Media Literacy Education, the peer-reviewed, open access journal of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE).

Renee Hobbs has spoken at the United Nations and consulted extensively with educators, school leaders, and government officials in Belgium, Brazil, China, Croatia, Greece, Lebanon, Netherlands, and many other countries. Hobbs has received numerous accolades for her leadership including the Research Excellence Award from the University of Rhode Island, the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity from the Media Ecology Association, and the Meritorious Service Award awarded by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE). She received an Ed.D from Harvard Graduate School of Education in Human Development and an M.A. and B.A. from the University of Michigan in Communication, English Literature, and Film/Video Studies. Learn more: www.mediaeducationlab.com

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Rhode Island State Library, 82 Smith Street, Providence, United States