Foundation-funded professorship brings national leader in AI and journalism to UVA
The University of Virginia has appointed Seth C. Lewis, a nationally recognized scholar of journalism and digital media, as the inaugural Elcan Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Media Studies in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Lewis will join UVA from the University of Oregon, where he holds the Shirley Papé Chair in Emerging Media and serves as Director of Journalism. His appointment reflects the University’s deepening commitment to exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping journalism, public knowledge, and democratic society.
Lewis’s research examines the evolving relationship between media and technology. A leading voice in the study of generative AI, his work focuses on how tools like ChatGPT are disrupting longstanding norms of authorship, originality, and professional identity in journalism. He also explores a broader cultural shift: growing public skepticism toward core institutions of knowledge, including journalism, medicine, and academia.
With more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 16,000 academic citations, Lewis is widely regarded as one of the most influential communication scholars of his generation. His work has been supported by fellowships at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, and Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He has also served in key leadership positions for the International Communication Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Lewis said the opportunity to come to UVA aligns not only with his scholarly interests but also with his approach to teaching.
“My experience at Oxford in 2019-20 showed me how transformative education can be when it’s conversational rather than solely lecture-based,” he said. “UVA and the Jefferson Scholars Foundation encourage precisely this kind of dialogical approach to intellectual discovery.”
In his new role, Lewis will contribute to the University’s efforts to address the urgent and complex questions posed by emerging technologies like AI. In addition to his teaching and research, he will help develop cross-disciplinary initiatives that bring together students and faculty from media studies, law, public policy, and beyond.
“One of the big questions we face today is: who—or what—will deliver on society’s desire for truth and information? We’re entering a new era where machines are stepping into roles once held by human communicators, and that shift requires careful consideration and collaboration across disciplines,” he said.
Rather than viewing this transition solely with alarm, Lewis also sees opportunity. “We tend to engage in moral panics and catastrophize about technologies, and we sometimes fail to see that they can bring new, emergent jobs and activities that we haven’t even anticipated. When it comes to journalism, for example, there will be major disruption—but also a chance to spur a revitalization or rebirth of the field.”
He also emphasized the enduring value of human creativity in a world increasingly shaped by automation. “It will be interesting to see how artisanal content and creation might thrive in a world where machines can produce virtually anything at scale, but often with a kind of blandness that doesn’t satisfy readers or curious minds.”
Jimmy Wright, president of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, celebrated Lewis’s appointment as a powerful example of how philanthropy can shape the intellectual future of the University. “Professor Lewis is the 13th scholar to hold a Foundation-funded professorship at UVA.” Wright said. “His work speaks directly to the issues of trust, truth, and technology that define our time. We are proud to support his efforts and excited about what his presence will mean for the University.
Funded at the $5 million level, the Elcan Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professorship was created through a generous gift from the Elcan Family. The position is intended to support a scholar whose work explores the frontiers of media and technology and fosters interdisciplinary engagement across the University.
Lewis’s appointment will begin in August 2026, pending formal approval from the UVA Board of Visitors.
