Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to offer its first doctoral program: a doctor of education degree in artificial intelligence and moral agency. The program will be the first degree of its kind at a historically Black college or university.
“This is a historic moment for Shaw University and for theological education,” said President Paulette R. Dillard. “For 160 years, Shaw has prepared leaders to meet the moral challenges of their time. This doctoral program reflects who we have always been, a university unafraid to lead.”
Housed in Shaw’s Divinity School, the Ed.D. program is an interdisciplinary doctorate designed to train proficient leaders in AI literacy, AI use, and applied theological ethics. The curriculum covers topics such as moral reasoning, social justice, and applied ethics to prepare students to critically assess AI technologies and shape ethical norms that promote human dignity and equity.
“Artificial intelligence is already shaping decisions in healthcare, criminal justice, hiring and public policy,” said Mark Harden, dean of Shaw Divinity School. “Those decisions raise questions of fairness and accountability that technical fields alone cannot resolve. That is exactly the kind of question theological and moral traditions have spent centuries working on — and exactly the gap this program is built to fill.”
Shaw will welcome its first cohort of 12 doctoral students in the Spring 2027 semester, with new groups enrolling each fall and spring thereafter.
