Jay Clayton

Jay Clayton is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, where he also directs the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy. Previously chairing the Department of English, he has received prestigious fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Institutes of Health, along with accolades for his teaching. Clayton's scholarship explores the interplay between narratives across different domains, examining how poetry influenced the novel in Romantic Vision and the Novel, how fiction shaped postmodern culture in The Pleasures of Babel, and how Victorian literature and science contributed to our contemporary digital landscape in Charles Dickens in Cyberspace. His recent research interests focus on the culture of gaming and the representation of genomics in literature and film, highlighting the ethical and social implications these topics present.