About the Chair

The Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance focuses on legal, constitutional, and political issues related to the institutions of American government. The Chair makes use of the world’s largest law library and the Library’s unique collection of manuscripts on the formation and development of the American Republic during their residence.

One of five Kluge Chairs articulated in the founding documents of The John W. Kluge Center, the Chair in American Law and Governance is occupied by scholars of great accomplishment chosen for their intellectual and communicative abilities. While in residence they are free to pursue their own research in the Library’s collections.

Together, these broadly defined Chairs bring a critical mass of the world’s leading thinkers to Washington from all over America and the world. Their presence provides an opportunity for ongoing dialogue with political leaders on matters of importance to civic and political life.

Find more information on Kluge Chairs in the Kluge Center charter.

A senior scholar position to research domestic matters of and among the three branches of the United States government.

Most Recent Chair

Michael Jones-Correa

Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance (2023)

Michael Jones-Correa is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science, chair of the Department of Political Science, and former, founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Immigration (CSERI) at the University of Pennsylvania. He taught previously at Harvard and at Cornell, where he served as the Robert J. Katz Chair of the Department of Government. He is a co-author of “Holding Fast: Resilience and Civic Engagement among Latino Immigrants” (Russell Sage, 2020), “Latinos in the New Millennium” (Cambridge, 2012) and “Latino Lives in America: Making It Home” (Temple, 2010), the author of “Between Two Nations: The Political Predicament of Latinos in New York City” (Cornell, 1998), the editor of “Governing American Cities: Inter-Ethnic Coalitions, Competition and Conflict” (Russell Sage, 2001), and co-editor of “Outsiders No More? Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation” (Oxford, 2013). He has published numerous articles and book chapters.
Jones-Correa was the team leader and ISS fellow for the 2010-2013 theme project “Immigration: Settlement, Immigration and Membership,” at the Institute for the Social Sciences at Cornell. He has been a visiting fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University. He has also served on the Committee on the Redesign of US Naturalization Test for the National Academy of Sciences, as vice president of the American Political Science Association, as a member of the American National Election Studies (ANES) Board of Overseers, and as council member and chair of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). He currently serves as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation.
His research has received support from the Carnegie, Ford, MacArthur, Robert Wood Johnson, Russell Sage and National Science foundations, among others. Jones-Correa earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Rice University.

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