Patricia Aufderheide

Patricia Ann Aufderheide is a scholar and public intellectual on media and social change, and an expert on fair use in media creation and scholarship. She is a university professor at American University in Washington, D.C., where she has worked since 1989. She founded and led the Center for Social Media in 2000, which in 2015 Caty Borum then led and renamed the Center for Media & Social Impact. She has received multiple awards and honors for her journalism and scholarship, including 2026 induction into the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Silver Circle for “significant and impactful contributions to the television industry,” the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1994, Fulbright Research Fellowships in 1995 (Brazil), 2017 (Australia) and 2024, and numerous journalism and career awards.