In an AI-saturated learning environment, history classrooms face a new version of an old problem: whose stories get told, and whose lives are flattened, omitted, erased, or remixed into “generic” narratives. This interactive workshop equips educators with a ready-to-use approach for teaching women’s history that uses primary sources to strengthen human creativity, authentic storytelling, and purposeful civic imagination, while integrating AI intentionally as a tool to support inquiry (not to replace human voice). The workshop reinforces the idea that primary sources aren’t just evidence; they’re creative prompts and ethical anchors that help students build authentic stories as well as purposeful civic/activist responses, in a world of erasure and AI-generated sameness.

The workshop addresses the potential use of AI not as a shortcut, but as a tool for inquiry, accessibility, and reflection. Participants will work with a small set of women’s history primary sources (letters, oral history excerpts, news coverage, journalism, protest ephemera, and/or legal documents) and practice a classroom protocol that asks students to: (1) generate questions and emotional/historical “noticings,” (2) test AI-generated summaries against evidence to identify erasure and bias, (3) translate source-based insights into an original creative artifact (micro-memoir, found poem, zine panel, mini-exhibit, or audio script), and (4) connect learning to action through a low-stakes activism extension (community memory project, annotation campaign, local-history map pin, or public-facing exhibit label).

The session models low-barrier tools and includes guardrails for privacy, attribution, and responsible use. Participants leave with a complete lesson plan, student handouts, and a rubric (adaptable across disciplines and online, hybrid, or face-to-face modalities) that assesses evidence-based creativity, ethical AI literacy, and human-centered historical thinking.