Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky is Vice Provost for AI and Technology in Education at NYU. In this role, he designs, develops and enhances all academic aspects of technology-based teaching and learning university-wide; oversees the development of NYU’s instructional technology strategy, working with deans, faculty, NYU IT and other university offices; maintains an inventory of online education offerings; and helps schools use educational technology to recruit new students and help existing students learn, progress and generate costs savings or new revenues. He chairs the University’s Future of Technology-Enhanced Education Committee.

Shirky is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and an associate arts professor in the Tisch School of the Arts’ Interactive Telecommunications Program. From 2014 to 2017, he served as chief information officer at NYU Shanghai. Before joining NYU’s full-time faculty in fall 2004, he was a partner at an international investment company and was the original Professor of New Media at Hunter College, where he helped design its MFA in Integrated Media Arts program. Currently, Shirky is a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and was the 2010 Edward R. Murrow Visiting Lecturer at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

Shirky holds a B.A. in fine art from Yale University. A leading voice on the social and economic impact of internet technologies, he is the author of “Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream” (2015), “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age” (2010), and “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” (2008). In 2010, he was named one of Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.” He has had regular columns in Business 2.0 and FEED, among other publications, and his writings have appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Wired, Computerworld and Foreign Affairs.

Clay Shirky is available to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting meetings, interactive workshops and customized keynotes through the exclusive representation of Stern Speakers & Advisors, a division of Stern Strategy Group^®.