Georgetown University Subject Matter Experts on “Magnifica Humanitas”

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University scholars offer their expertise to journalists seeking interviews on a variety of subjects related to Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas."

To request an interview, please contact Georgetown's Office of Communications at [email protected].

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Papacy Experts

Vanessa Corcoran, professor of church history in the College of Arts & Sciences

Dr. Vanessa Corcoran is an instructor of medieval history in the College of Arts & Sciences. She has expertise in medieval religious history, devotional practices in the Catholic Church, and the significance of female saints (especially the Virgin Mary). Among her publications, Dr. Corcoran has written "The Keys to Two Marys: Popes and the Women of Scripture" as well as "Returning to His Mother's Home: Why Pope Francis chose to be buried at Mary Major".

Open to: TV, Radio and Print

Kim Daniels, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and adjunct professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Kim Daniels, J.D., is the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. She served as a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication from 2016 to 2026 and as an expert participant in the Synod on Synodality, and led a major Vatican study group focused on the Church's mission in the digital environment. She has advised Catholic leaders and institutions at national and global levels on a broad range of issues where Church teachings intersect with public life.

Open to: TV, Radio and Print

Christopher White, associate director for strategic initiatives and senior fellow of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life

Christopher White is the associate director for strategic initiatives and senior fellow of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. Before joining Georgetown University, he was a Vatican correspondent and national correspondent for National Catholic Reporter and a former reporter for Crux. He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post, NPR, CNN, among many other print and online publications. He is the author of the book "Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy."

Open to: TV, Radio and Print

Digital Ethics

Laura DeNardis, professor and Inaugural Endowed Chair in Technology, Ethics, and Society and the director of the Center for Digital Ethics

Laura DeNardis is the Inaugural Endowed Chair in Technology, Ethics, and Society, director of the Center for Digital Ethics and professor in the department of Communication, Culture and Technology at Georgetown University. Dr. DeNardis is recognized as a leading scholar of technology and society across the globe. She is a life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an affiliated Fellow of the Yale Information Society Project, where she previously served as Executive Director. She has served as the appointed Director of Research for the Global Commission on Internet Governance and an appointed member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. Additionally, Dr. DeNardis has authored eight books, including "The Global War for Internet Governance," which is widely considered the definitive source for understanding power struggles over technical infrastructure.

Open to: Radio and Print

Will Fleisher, an assistant professor of philosophy and a research assistant professor in the Center for Digital Ethics.

Will Fleisher is an assistant professor of philosophy, research assistant professor in the Center for Digital Ethics and affiliated with the Technology, Ethics, and Society program. Dr. Fleisher's research concerns the ethical, political, and epistemic implications of contemporary and near-term AI systems, particularly those developed using machine learning techniques. He has written about algorithmic fairness and explainable AI. His work has been published in AAAI/ACM conference proceedings and in leading philosophy journals, including Noûs, Philosophical Studies, and Philosophy of Science.

Open to: TV, Radio and Print

Tech Policy

Meg Leta Jones, a professor in and chair of the Communication, Culture & Technology department at Georgetown University

Meg Leta Jones is a professor in and chair of the Communication, Culture & Technology department, where she researches rules and technological change with a focus on privacy, automation, and families. She is also a founding faculty member of the Center for Digital Ethics and a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law Center. Her first book, "Ctrl+Z: The Right to be Forgotten," examines the social, legal, and technical issues surrounding digital oblivion, while her second book project, "The Character of Consent: The History of Cookies and Future of Technology Policy," tells the transatlantic history of digital consent through the lens of a familiar technical object. Much of Meg's current work centers on family technology policy, working with policymakers at the local, state, and national levels on topics ranging from social media and edtech to eldercare and ancestry platforms. Alongside this, she collaborates with Georgetown scholars on Redesigning the Governance Stack, a project to overhaul the administrative state, and with Paul Ohm on the Tech Impact Lab, where students are trained to do technical investigations in partnership with the state attorney general

offices.

Open to: TV, Radio and Print

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