Jay Clayton

Chair, Department of English
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English; Professor of Cinema and Media Arts, and Communication of Science, Engineering and Technology

I am a professor of English, Communications of Science and Technology, and Cinema and Media Arts. My courses explore the intersection of literature, new media, and technology, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and genetics, and they range from Victorian science fiction to contemporary depictions of robots and clones to narrative in online gaming. My research focuses on collaborative models for the study of literature and film. For more than a decade, I have run a NIH-funded humanities lab that supports 6-8 student researchers each year, who join me in studying the influence of literature, film, television, and social media on public attitudes toward genetics and AI. I am author of four books, five edited collections, and more than 50 articles and chapters, including Literature, Science, and Public Policy: From Darwin to Genomics (Open Access at Cambridge Core) and Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture (Oxford University Press).

My work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the NIH, and elsewhere. I have served as chair of the English Department in 2000, 2002–2010, and 2025-26; Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy from 2012-2022; and Acting Chair of the Theatre Department from 2023-24.