October 13, 2014 Jane McAuliffe to Serve as Director of John W. Kluge Center and Office of Scholarly Programs

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced that he has named distinguished scholar and academic administrator Jane McAuliffe the director of the John W. Kluge Center and head of the Library’s Office of Scholarly Programs.

McAuliffe is the immediate past president of Bryn Mawr College and a world-renowned scholar of Islam, the Qur’an and Muslim-Christian relations. She was in residence as a distinguished visiting scholar at the Kluge Center during the 2013-2014 academic year. During her residency she completed a book on the Qur’an that combines a contemporary translation with a detailed introduction to Muslim and Western scholarship on this important work of world literature.

During her tenure as president of Bryn Mawr, from 2008 to 2013, McAuliffe led the creation of a 10-year, college-wide strategic plan, inaugurated a major in international studies and a minor in environmental studies, built a global presence for the school through student recruitment as well as university partnerships in Europe, the Middle East and Asia and partnered with the U.S. Department of State to develop the Women in Public Service Program. During her presidency the college saw applications rise to a record high, innovative curricular programs launched, three important campus buildings redesigned and restored, and two of the top five gifts in the school’s history secured.

Previously, McAuliffe served as dean of arts and sciences at Georgetown University, from 1999 to 2008; as professor and department chair at the University of Toronto, from 1992 to 1999; and as professor and associate dean at Emory University, from 1986 to 1992.

McAuliffe holds a Ph.D. in Islamic studies and a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of Toronto; she also holds a bachelor’s degree in classics and philosophy from Trinity College in Washington, D.C.

She is the author or editor of six books, including the “Norton Anthology of World Religions: Islam” which will be published next month, and the six-volume “Encyclopedia of the Qur’an,” the first major reference work on the Qur’an in Western languages. She has written more than 80 articles, book chapters and reviews and has lectured and spoken extensively in the United States and around the world.

McAuliffe is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the Council on Foreign Relations. She has served on the World Economic Forum’s GAC on Women’s Empowerment; has been president of the American Academy of Religion and has been a leader of Muslim-Christian dialogue initiatives for decades. McAuliffe has been awarded fellowships by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto, Victoria University, St. Catherine University and Simpson College.

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