News

April 15, 2008, Cairo -- The American University in Cairo (AUC) today announced the appointment of Columbia University Professor Lisa Anderson, a specialist on politics in the Middle East and North Africa, as its next provost. Dr. Anderson succeeds Dr. Earl (Tim) Sullivan who has been AUC provost since 1998 and professor of political science at AUC since 1973.

As AUC's chief academic officer, Anderson will be responsible for shaping and implementing AUC's academic vision and continuing to build the size and quality of its faculty. As the region's premier liberal arts institution, AUC enrolls more than 5000 students and has a full time faculty of 400. The university will be moving to a new $400 million campus this year.

AUC President David D. Arnold said that the appointment of an academic leader of Anderson's stature is a reflection of AUC's increasing prestige internationally as an institution of higher education. "Professor Anderson has been a leader in higher education in the United States for the past several decades," Arnold said, "AUC is fortunate to have attracted a respected academic and experienced administrator of her caliber as we prepare to embark on a second century of leadership in higher education in Egypt and the Arab Region."

"I am delighted to be joining AUC at a pivotal time for the university and for higher education in Egypt and the Arab world," Anderson said. "Thanks to its history of distinguished and far-sighted leadership, AUC is uniquely positioned to play a vital role in the development of higher education for the twenty-first century, not only in the region but globally. I am privileged be a part of this venture."

Anderson is currently the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at Columbia University and is the former dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. Prior to being dean, she was the chair of the political science department at the university. She also served as the director of Columbia's Middle East Institute. Before joining Columbia, she was assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University from 1981 to 1986.

Anderson is the author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Columbia University Press, 2003), The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1830-1980 (Princeton University Press, 1986), editor of Transitions to Democracy (Columbia University Press, 1999) and coeditor of The Origins of Arab Nationalism (Columbia 1991).

Anderson is the past president of the Middle East Studies Association and chair of the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council. She is a former member of the Council of the American Political Science Association and serves on the board of the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs. She is member emerita of the board of Human Rights Watch, where she served as co-chair of Human Rights Watch/Middle East. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She earned a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1981, where she also received a certificate from the Middle East Institute. She is also an alumna of AUC's Arabic language program through the Center for Arabic Study Abroad, a consortium of 28 U.S. universities that has been sending advanced Arabic students to Cairo for more than 40 years. She was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from Monmouth University in 2002.

The American University in Cairo (AUC) was founded 90 years ago and is a major contributor to the social, political and cultural life of the Arab Region. It is a vital bridge between East and West, linking Egypt and the region to the world through scholarly research, partnerships with academic and research institutions, and study abroad programs. An independent, nonprofit, apolitical, non-sectarian and equal-opportunity institution, AUC is fully accredited in Egypt and the United States.