Stony Brook's 'Future of History' Course: Bridging Tech and Culture
Stony Brook University Senior Lecturer Tony Scarlatos, a recipient of the 2024 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, has been honored with a faculty fellowship for 2025–2027. This fellowship will enable him to develop an innovative course titled, "The Future of History," which will revolutionize how students engage with cultural heritage by leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI, augmented reality, and 3D scanning.
Course Overview
Scheduled to launch in Fall 2026, the course will bridge computer science, digital humanities, and museum studies through hands-on projects with institutions such as the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, The Jazz Loft, and the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. Students will learn to digitize archival materials, create interactive exhibits, and develop accessibility tools using open-source platforms. The curriculum includes AI-driven restoration of artifacts and documents, holographic displays for immersive exhibit design, and projection mapping techniques used in major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
An Innovative Approach
"This isn’t only about preserving the past—it’s also about reinventing how we engage with history through technology," said Scarlatos. "Students will gain skills that museums desperately need while reimagining what’s possible in cultural storytelling."
Impact and Funding
The course materials will be released as Open Educational Resources (OER), supporting under-resourced cultural institutions and enabling SUNY-wide scalability. The course will culminate in internships where students deploy their tools at partner institutions, creating a pipeline between classroom innovation and real-world cultural impact.
By training students to bridge technical and cultural gaps, Scarlatos’ initiative aims to redefine how history is experienced in the 21st century. This pioneering course underscores Stony Brook’s role in advancing digital humanities and sets a new standard for interdisciplinary innovation in cultural preservation.
By: Yuganshu Jain