Innovation • Neurodiversity • Responsible AI

Reimagining Ancient Studies through Inclusive Innovation

CIAW is an international non-profit centre advancing Ancient Studies through inclusive pedagogy, neurodiversity-aware design, responsible artificial intelligence, and evidence-based academic innovation. We promote open knowledge, interdisciplinary collaboration, and learning environments that protect academic integrity, academic freedom, and professional dignity. CIAW opposes workplace bullying, harassment, intimidation, defamation, exclusionary practices, coordinated reputational attacks, and the misuse of digital technologies—including artificial intelligence—to marginalise, silence, or discredit members of the scholarly community.

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Inclusive Neurodiversity by Design
Responsible AI Transparent & Ethical
Open Science Accessible Knowledge
Integrity Evidence before Narratives
OUR MISSION

Building the Future of Ancient Studies

CIAW develops innovative methodologies for teaching, research and public engagement that combine humanities scholarship with responsible digital technologies. Our work places neurodiversity, accessibility, academic integrity and open collaboration at the centre of educational innovation.

🧠 Neurodiversity First

Learning environments should adapt to people—not the opposite. CIAW designs courses, workshops and resources that recognise different cognitive profiles as sources of creativity, analytical strength and innovation rather than barriers to participation.

⚙ Responsible AI

Artificial Intelligence should enhance scholarship rather than replace scholarly judgement. CIAW develops transparent, explainable and evidence-based AI methodologies for Ancient Studies, always centred on verification and human expertise.

🌍 Open Knowledge

Research becomes stronger when knowledge circulates openly. Whenever licensing permits, CIAW publishes teaching materials, methodological guides, datasets and workflows as reusable Open Educational Resources.

🛡 Academic Integrity

Healthy academic communities require transparency, respect and evidence-based dialogue. CIAW opposes the misuse of digital technologies for harassment, fabricated attribution, reputational attacks, exclusionary behaviour, or coordinated defamatory campaigns that undermine scholarly trust.

OUR COMMITMENTS

Innovation with Human Values

Innovation is meaningful only when it expands participation, strengthens critical thinking, and protects the people who create knowledge. These commitments guide every CIAW activity.

Inclusive Education

Universal Design for Learning, accessible materials, multimodal resources, flexible assessment, and neurodiversity-aware pedagogy.

Responsible Innovation

Critical adoption of AI, transparent methodologies, reproducible workflows, ethical experimentation and continuous evaluation.

Academic Well-being

Respectful collaboration, constructive peer dialogue, institutional accountability, and environments that discourage intimidation, harassment and defamatory narratives.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Historians, archaeologists, classicists, computer scientists, educators and heritage professionals working together.

Evidence Before Opinion

Claims should remain verifiable. CIAW promotes critical literacy, documentation, source verification, and methodological transparency across all digital practices.

Open Communities

International collaboration, shared resources, open publications, peer mentoring and sustainable academic networks.

FOUNDATION

Where CIAW Comes From

CIAW emerged from years of teaching, research, curriculum design and digital innovation across several universities and higher education institutions. Rather than representing a single institution, CIAW integrates experiences from diverse academic environments into one shared mission: making Ancient Studies more inclusive, more innovative, and more accessible.

Academic Experience

CIAW builds upon collaborations and teaching developed across institutions including: • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
• ENTI–Universitat de Barcelona
• Universidad Europea
• Kyoto Prefectural University

Why CIAW Exists

Many excellent initiatives remain isolated. CIAW was created to connect educators, researchers, students and digital innovators through practical methodologies, open educational resources, and responsible technological innovation. Our objective is not simply to study Antiquity, but to rethink how Ancient Studies can be taught, shared and experienced in the twenty-first century.

FLAGSHIP PUBLICATION

AI & Antiquity

An international open-access journal exploring Artificial Intelligence, Ancient Studies, digital humanities, inclusive pedagogy, and responsible technological innovation.

AI & Antiquity Volume 2 Issue 1
Volume 2 · Issue 1 · 2026

AI & Antiquity

Journal of Teaching, Artificial Intelligence and Ancient Studies

ISSN 3081-4553

This issue examines how Artificial Intelligence is transforming teaching, historical research, editorial practice, heritage, and public engagement, placing verification, critical literacy and inclusion at the centre of academic practice.

📚 Research

Comparative evaluations of AI in historical research, source criticism, epigraphy, philology, and archaeological interpretation.

🎓 Teaching

Inclusive assessment, critical AI literacy, accessible learning environments, and neurodiversity-aware methodologies.

🌍 Society

Public history, heritage communication, digital ethics, algorithmic accountability and responsible innovation.

Why this journal matters

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping scholarship at every level. Rather than framing AI as either a miracle or a threat, AI & Antiquity approaches it as an intellectual ecosystem requiring critical reflection, verification, ethical governance, and methodological transparency.

The journal examines how AI mediates teaching, knowledge production, editorial work, peer review, historical interpretation, and cultural memory.

Special attention is devoted to the risks introduced by generative AI, including fabricated citations, hallucinated references, misattribution, algorithmic bias, and other failures that may affect scholarly communication.

The journal also encourages discussion about institutional responses that foster academic integrity, transparent evaluation, and respectful scholarly dialogue in digital environments.

WHAT WE DO

Activities

CIAW develops practical initiatives connecting teaching, research, digital innovation and public engagement.

🎓 Workshops

Hands-on training on Ancient History, epigraphy, languages, digital humanities, AI and inclusive teaching.

📖 Open Educational Resources

Guides, templates, rubrics, datasets, prompts and reusable classroom materials.

🤝 Mentoring

Supporting educators, students, early-career researchers and independent scholars.

⚙ Innovation Labs

Experimental projects combining AI, game-based learning, digital storytelling and historical reconstruction.

🧠 Neurodiversity

Designing educational experiences that recognise diverse cognitive strengths, executive function needs and accessible communication.

🌍 International Networks

Building collaborations between universities, schools, cultural institutions and researchers worldwide.

RESEARCH · TEACHING · IMPACT

Current Projects

CIAW develops collaborative initiatives that combine educational innovation, responsible Artificial Intelligence, Ancient Studies, and inclusive pedagogical design.

Forgotten Voices in Antiquity
Teaching Innovation 2025–2026

Forgotten Voices in Antiquity

Official Teaching Innovation Project (GI517492) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, exploring inclusive methodologies, critical AI literacy, and new approaches for teaching Ancient History.

Focus
  • Inclusive pedagogy
  • Marginalised voices
  • Critical AI literacy
  • Universal Design for Learning
Outputs
  • Teaching guides
  • Case studies
  • Open educational resources
  • Transferable methodologies

Principal Investigators: Carlos Heredia · Isaías Arrayás

Faculty of Philosophy and Letters
Faculty Innovation

Inclusive AI Workshops

Faculty-wide initiative introducing responsible AI, prompt engineering, ethical assessment, and accessible instructional design within Humanities programmes.

Accessibility

Inclusive materials & multimodal resources.

Ethics

Transparency, verification & critical AI literacy.

Impact

Faculty seminars & shared teaching models.

AI Workshops
Professional Development

AI, Assessment & Inclusive Pedagogy

Training programme developed through the Formació a Mida initiative at UAB, supporting university teachers in integrating Artificial Intelligence responsibly into higher education.

Courses
  • Continuous Assessment & AI
  • Inclusive AI for Humanities
  • Ethics of Generative AI
Methodology
  • Collaborative laboratories
  • Hands-on workshops
  • Practical templates
Archeion
Public Engagement

Archeion

Archeion is CIAW's public dissemination initiative, bringing Ancient History, Artificial Intelligence, archaeology and digital humanities to broader audiences through multimedia storytelling.

Podcast

Long-form discussions.

Video

Educational explainers.

Outreach

Accessible dissemination.

CURRENT RESEARCH

What Are We Working On?

CIAW actively develops research, educational innovation and international collaborations exploring Ancient Studies, neurodiversity and responsible Artificial Intelligence. Our current work combines peer-reviewed publications, inclusive teaching methodologies and collaborative research projects that seek to transform how the ancient world is taught, studied and shared.

Journal of Classics Teaching
Peer-reviewed Publication

Flipped Learning and AI-Supported Itineraries for Neurodivergent Learners: A Case Study in Ancient History

Recently published in the Journal of Classics Teaching (Cambridge University Press), this study investigates how flipped learning, Artificial Intelligence and inclusive instructional design can improve Ancient History teaching for neurodivergent students while strengthening executive function, autonomy and engagement.

Upcoming Publication

Inclusive Assessment in Online Ancient History: A Neurodiversity-Informed Approach to the Critical Use of AI

Forthcoming in Journal of Classical Teaching this article proposes a neurodiversity-informed redesign of continuous assessment for fully online Ancient History courses. Drawing on inclusive practices developed at institutions such as The Open University and adapted to online higher education, it presents a model based on universal design rather than individual accommodation.

The proposed framework combines short visual learning capsules, asynchronous "silent tutorials", optional live tutorials and structured planning tools to support executive functioning, reduce cognitive overload and improve self-regulation throughout the semester.

Rather than using Artificial Intelligence as a shortcut for academic work, students critically analyse AI-generated interpretations of the ancient world, identifying algorithmic bias, historiographical omissions and stereotyped representations. By comparing AI outputs with primary sources and current scholarship, the approach strengthens both historical thinking and critical AI literacy while promoting more inclusive perspectives on traditionally marginalised groups in Antiquity.

Coming September 2026

AI & Antiquity — Volume 2 · Issue 2

CIAW is currently coordinating a special collection of international contributions dedicated to neurodiversity, inclusive pedagogy and innovation in Ancient Studies. The forthcoming issue brings together researchers from Europe and Latin America working at the intersection of Classics, accessibility and educational transformation.

The Positive Contribution of Neurodivergence to Ancient Studies

Jenny Read-Heimerdinger · Institut Catholique de Toulouse

How neurodivergent strengths—including rigour, clarity and advanced pattern recognition—can enrich research, teaching and scholarly practice in Ancient History and Classics.

The Neurodiverse Teaching the Neurodiverse

Julia Tomas · The Open University

Reflections on teaching Ancient History as a dyspraxic lecturer and how neurodivergent-led pedagogy benefits students across higher education.

The Relaxed Tutorial Project

Cora Beth Fraser · The Open University

A disability-led redesign of online Classics tutorials introducing sensory-friendly learning environments and flexible participation models.

The Case Study of the "Simulacrum"

Sebastián Altamirano · Universidad de Costa Rica

An innovative formative assessment model in Latin that reduces anxiety, improves preparation and supports neurodivergent learners.

NEURODIVERSITY BY DESIGN

Different Minds.
Better Humanities.

CIAW considers neurodiversity an essential source of creativity, innovation, critical thinking and scholarly excellence. Rather than adapting learners to rigid educational models, we design learning environments that recognise different cognitive strengths from the beginning.

Who do we design for?

  • ADHD & Executive Function support
  • Autism Spectrum & Structured clarity
  • Dyslexia & Multimodal learning
  • Dyspraxia & Accessible workflows
  • Tourette Syndrome & Flexible engagement
  • Giftedness & Deep intellectual exploration
  • Highly Sensitive Persons & Low-sensory options
  • Mixed neurocognitive profiles

How does this translate into practice?

  • Chunked learning materials
  • Clear visual hierarchy & typography
  • Executive-function friendly resources
  • Flexible assessment pathways
  • Accessible digital environments
  • Predictable workshop structures
  • Multimodal learning resources
  • Inclusive communication strategies

Artificial Intelligence as Cognitive Support

CIAW explores Artificial Intelligence as an assistive educational technology. Used responsibly, AI can support reading, organisation, summarisation, language learning, historical interpretation and personalised learning pathways, while always preserving human judgement, critical reflection and scholarly verification.

OUR VALUES

The Principles Behind CIAW

Everything we build is guided by openness, inclusion, academic responsibility and long-term collaboration.

📖 Open Knowledge

Whenever possible, our publications, teaching resources and methodologies are openly shared.

⚙ Innovation

We experiment responsibly with new technologies, always evaluating educational impact before technological novelty.

🤝 Collaboration

Ancient Studies benefit from interdisciplinary dialogue between historians, archaeologists, classicists, educators and technologists.

🌍 Accessibility

Accessibility is not an afterthought. It is a design principle embedded in every CIAW initiative.

🧠 Neurodiversity

Different cognitive profiles strengthen teaching, research, problem solving and historical interpretation.

🛡 Academic Integrity

CIAW promotes evidence-based scholarship, transparent methodologies, respectful academic dialogue, and opposes the misuse of digital technologies for harassment, fabricated attribution, coordinated reputational attacks, or other practices that undermine trust in scholarly communities.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Let's Build the Future of Ancient Studies

CIAW welcomes collaborations with universities, schools, research groups, cultural institutions, educators, students and independent scholars interested in inclusive innovation, responsible Artificial Intelligence and Ancient Studies.

Collaborate with CIAW → Visit the Journal