ChatGPT and the fate of the undergraduate essay in the humanities: interpreting initial responses from Stellenbosch University

In early 2023, the use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT became apparent in undergraduate courses in South African universities. In the Humanities and Social Sciences, where most disciplines rely on essays for training and assessment, this development produced considerable anxiety and, over the following years, led to reconsiderations of teaching and learning in the humanities at Stellenbosch University. Amid the ongoing scramble to refashion assessments, it is important to consider the stakes of undergraduate humanities education. To address this in a preliminary way, our paper begins by briefly situating undergraduate training in humanities in South Africa and discusses the role of the essay in the humanities and the multiple processes (or “skills”) involved in essay writing. It then draws on interviews and experiences of academics in the humanities at Stellenbosch University during the initial period of the use of ChatGPT, recording some of the anxieties of that moment as well as the aspirations for ways to work around its use. Our paper concludes by attempting to conceptualise the implications of allowing large language models to produce essays for students.