AI-Assisted Writing and Academic Survival of the Early-career Researchers
William Sandy (Pontianak/Indonesia)
Wann: 14. Oktober 2026, 18:00 Uhr
Wo: Hörsaal des IMGWF in der Königstraße 42 in Lübeck
What happens when an early-career academic is caught between institutional publication requirements and a journal's strict AI detection software? To survive, many are turning to a lifeline tool: AI "humanizer" tools that revise their writing to evade the detection tools.
Based on interviews with Indonesian early career academics that have to fulfill their high-stake Beban Kerja Dosen (BKD) workload, this talk looks past the usual narrative of academic cheating to examine the real human challenge of the publish-or-perish system. We explore why young scholars place their trust in algorithms, and the sense of alienation they experience when these tools strip away their authentic scholarly voice. This is a conversation about what happens to our academic identity when the pressure to publish forces us to become more like project managers of our own writing just to keep our jobs.
William Sandy is the Vice Rector for Academic and Student Affairs at Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis Sabda Setia in Pontianak, Indonesia, and is currently a DAAD GROW Visiting Scientist at the University of Lübeck. He holds a PhD in Higher Education from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His research explores the topics of educational leadership, academic policies, and the ethical integration of artificial intelligence in higher education. A former Australia Awards Fellow and Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Teachers College, Columbia University, William currently leads the CERDAS AI (Center for Educational Research, Design, And Sustainable AI) lab and has led multiple national and international research grants focused on interdisciplinary higher education innovation.