The University of Georgia announced on Mar. 27 that Bree Bang-Jensen, assistant professor at the School of Public and International Affairs and College of Public Health, has received the 2026 Innovation in AI Teaching Award. The award is presented by the Office of Instruction to recognize faculty who have made significant contributions to integrating artificial intelligence into teaching and learning.
The recognition highlights the growing importance of AI in higher education and its potential to enhance student learning outcomes. The award aims to celebrate faculty who demonstrate creativity and innovation in leveraging AI technologies for academic success.
Bang-Jensen was honored for an assignment she designed for INTL 4210: International Law. The two-part assignment changed how students learn treaty drafting by incorporating generative AI tools, drawing on trends such as text reuse in treaty drafting, legislative borrowing, and increasing adoption of AI in legal practice. In the first part, student groups drafted treaties on topics like cybersecurity or climate change using a Large Language Model chat client after providing it with sample treaties. Students then edited the outputs for accuracy and provided documentation showing their use of AI prompts.
In the second part, students individually wrote ratification memos from specific nation-state perspectives without using any AI tools. This ensured that analytical skills were developed independently while also promoting transparency about when human oversight is essential.
The assignment aimed to build critical literacy around artificial intelligence by encouraging students to see it as a tool that requires expert judgment rather than as a replacement for human reasoning. It also fostered legal reasoning skills beyond technical drafting through explanation and defense of key choices related to obligations, precision, delegation, and flexibility.
“This assignment is a terrific example of AI-resilient assessment,” said Meg Mittelstadt, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. “It incorporates generative AI in meaningful, disciplinary-appropriate ways that support students’ critical thinking, creativity and authentic engagement with real-world tasks.”
