A Note on the Use of GenAI Tools
Drama, Theatre and Performance is an embodied discipline, powered by breath and carried in language. Within the study and practice of DTPS (as within the study and practice of any Humanities discipline), artists and scholars alike seek to explore and articulate the most profound human truths. This pull towards truth and this need to articulate the truths we discover are aspects our admissions committee looks for from those who apply to the CDTPS. Recent history within our program has demonstrated that admissions applications have not benefitted and will not benefit from any intervention by large-language models or other AI systems.
The use of large-language models and other AI systems (e.g., chatbots, writing programs, translation software, etc.) in academic research and scholarship is pervasive. We understand that for many reasons, applicants may wish to use such technologies in their graduate applications to CDTPS. However, because of their training data, LLMs typically reduce writing to statistical norms in prose. They thus obscure what is distinctive in the writing and thinking of individual applicants, but it is these distinctions that we value most. We therefore strongly discourage the use of any AI in graduate applications. We are most interested in your authentic voice and distinct perspectives: what you have seen, read, thought, and imagined in the study of drama, theatre, and performance. Thus, our review of applications will prioritize distinctive and individual language that articulates who you are as prospective student and future colleague.