AY2025-2026 #50966: Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor in Human Values: Endowed Chair of Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

Description

Southern Methodist University (SMU) seeks a visionary scholar at the associate or full professor level to lead our groundbreaking initiative in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ethics beginning August 1, 2025. Over the past several years, SMU has been actively developing a big-data ecosystem, supported by next-generation research computing technology, to engage the disciplines across campus from physics to art, engineering to history, and business to education, in the pursuit of leading-edge research with impact.   

 

The Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor in Human Values: Endowed Chair of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (Scurlock Chair), one of SMU’s two endowed university-level professorships, reports directly to the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and represents our commitment to bringing an ethical and humanistic analysis to bear on the future of AI. We see this chair as an opportunity to expand our impact across both the artificial intelligence and ethics domains, and to bring to campus a world-renowned scholar who will contribute to, and expand upon, the robust work that is already taking place on campus in ways that benefit faculty, staff, students and the broader community.

 

Position Overview

We are at a pivotal moment in human history, where artificial intelligence is reshaping the fabric of society. Our university seeks a thought leader who will bridge the technological frontier with human values, ethics, and societal needs. The successful candidate will help to shape vital conversations across academic, political, and policy discourses that guide societal understanding of how AI can augment and enhance human capability while preserving the essence of human creativity, decision-making, and social connection.

 

The role of the Scurlock chair is to be a leading advocate for ethics in the national and international community. Certainly, we recognize the need for human-centered influence in the development of AI to ensure that technology serves human needs and values. From a philosophical vantage, the concerns range from AI’s social and cultural impact to the development of values literacy in AI programming or the protection of human rights.  In governance, the issues may include maintaining transparency in decision making, data and privacy concerns, responsible innovation, and equity and access concerns.  In applied ethics, the practical implementation of AI might include governance standards, policy oversight and ethical guidelines for AI deployment. We welcome applications from any recognized area of study.

 

Our Commitment

·       We offer a vibrant intellectual environment where innovation meets reflection, and where technological advancement is guided by human values. Our university is committed to creating a future where AI serves as a tool for human flourishing.

·       SMU values cross-disciplinary collaboration.  Whether working with our innovative Pegasus Park project, The O’Donnell Data Science and Research Computing Institute, The Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, the Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, or the numerous initiatives of our eight degree-granting schools, opportunities for collaboration and impact are substantial.

·       This position offers competitive salary and benefits, research support, and the opportunity to shape the future of human-centered AI development.

 

SMU has a long commitment to ethics.  Two university professorships were established in the mid-1980s, the Scurlock Chair and the Maguire Chair in Ethics. In 1995, The Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility was founded as a university-wide initiative for the interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary ethical questions.

 

Major grant-funded research utilizing AI by SMU faculty and students include:

·       SMU is part of a six-institution NSF AI Institute (AI-ENGAGE), which is focused on narrative centered learning environments and has emphasized ethics and AI.

·       Researchers in SMU’s Simmons School of Education and