Where AI meets the Liberal Arts

The Center for AI and the Liberal Arts (CAILA) brings together students and faculty from across the University of Mary Washington — computer science, the humanities, social sciences, and the arts — to explore what AI can do and what it should do. Our goal is for every UMW graduate to leave with both practical AI skills and the judgment to use them ethically.

Find your path:

News and Highlights

Sean O’Brien Completes Inaugural AI Expert-in-Residence Term

UMW alum Sean O’Brien ’09, Associate Vice President at Internet2, served as CAILA’s first AI Expert-in-Residence this spring — mentoring student research teams, delivering a public talk on AI’s role in education, and joining student presentations at Research and Creativity Day. Read about his residency.

[Photo: Sean in Seacobeck Hall, Weatherly Wing after a CAILA event]

Thank You, Giving Day Donors

Thanks to Jennifer Muniz and everyone who contributed on UMW Giving Day — we met the Muniz challenge!

Watch: Inside the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts (fall 2025 edition)

About the Center

Our Mission

AI raises questions about ethics, values, and human impact — exactly the questions the liberal arts are built to examine. The world needs more than engineers who can build AI systems; it needs thinkers who can critique them, policymakers who grasp their implications, artists and writers who explore their cultural influence, and leaders who ensure technology serves the common good. CAILA exists to develop those people.

We integrate AI across UMW’s liberal arts curriculum so that students develop technical fluency and the ability to examine AI’s ethical, cultural, and societal dimensions.

UMW’s liberal arts mission and programs — from Computer Science and Data Science to Communication and Digital Studies — make it a natural home for this work.

What We Offer

For Students

Coursework, funded research projects, mentorship from visiting experts, and the annual AI pitch contest. Graduates leave able to bridge technical teams and the broader business, policy, and social questions employers increasingly care about.

For Faculty

Research grants, AI teaching workshops, help bringing guest lecturers to class, and support for integrating AI tools into any discipline.

For the Institution

Establishing this center positions UMW as a national leader among public liberal arts universities in addressing the challenges and opportunities of AI. As UMW students, faculty and staff are forward-thinking and proactive in approaching AI, our classes, methods, and work evolve to keep our liberal arts mission relevant and dynamic. Through partnerships with COPLAC institutions and other universities across Virginia, UMW can share innovative AI integration strategies, best practices, and collaborative research opportunities, helping to advance AI literacy and ethical implementation throughout the broader academic community.

Our Vision

The intersection of AI and the liberal arts is a two-way street: AI provides new horizons for liberal learning, and the liberal arts provide the conscience and creative insight for AI. The center formalizes this synergy at UMW, ensuring our students and faculty are not just spectators of the AI revolution, but active, thoughtful participants shaping its trajectory.

Join us in shaping a future where technology and human wisdom evolve together, helping to redefine liberal arts education for the 21st century and beyond.

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