Biography

Dr. P. Anand Rao is Professor of Communication and Digital Studies at the University of Mary Washington, where he also serves as Founding Director of the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts (CAILA). The center supports faculty research and programming at the intersection of artificial intelligence and humanistic inquiry. He previously served as the founding Chair of UMW's Department of Communication and Digital Studies.

Dr. Rao's current work explores how liberal arts perspectives, particularly those grounded in rhetoric, ethics, and communication, can contribute to more responsible AI development and education. He is the editor of the forthcoming volume AI Pluralism: Fostering Diversity and Dialogue in Artificial Intelligence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), and his recent publications address topics such as explainability, contestability, and human agency in AI systems. He also serves as a Subject Matter Expert for Oxford University Press's AI Literacy curriculum, and is co-host of the AI x Higher Ed Podcast (https://aixhighered.com/).

Before turning his attention to AI, Dr. Rao spent many years teaching about debate, argumentation, and rhetorical theory. He directed UMW's Speaking Intensive program and served as the university's Assessment Coordinator for oral communication. He continues to coach his children's high school debate team and finds that argumentation theory remains central to his thinking about how humans and AI systems can reason together. You can find out more about his work at https://panandrao.com/.