This unit puts the toolkit to work in real institutions. For two domains in turn, you will first establish domain literacy: the institution’s values, authority structures, labor, and existing inequalities before AI enters. You will then return to the same domain and ask what changes once AI is deployed, using the BRAID application framework of capability, deployment conditions, and stakeholders.

A career bridge on the Domain B day pairs career storytelling and interview introductions with the work of establishing institutional context, since credibility and expertise are socially recognized in professional life much as they are in the domains you are studying.

The unit closes with a transfer lab, where you choose your own Example in the Wild and identify its domain, deployment patterns, an STS explanation, and an ethical lens, and a career session on how networks and AI tools shape your opportunity after college.

Fall 2026 dates: Thu, Oct 15 - Tue, Nov 3

Meeting sequence:

1. Domain A: How Does This Institution Already Work?
2. Domain A: What Changes When AI Enters?
3. Domain B: How Does This Institution Already Work?
4. Domain B: What Changes When AI Enters?
5. Transfer Lab: How Does a Different Institution Work Before AI?
6. How Are Opportunity and Professional Life Shaped by Networks and AI Tools?

By the end of this unit, you should be able to distinguish a domain’s pre-existing institutional logic from what specifically changes once AI enters it, and apply that distinction to a domain you choose yourself.