University Professor as well as Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, John L. Esposito is Founding Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding: History and International Affairs in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. At the College of the Holy Cross, he was Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, and Director of the Center for International Studies.

A consultant to the Department of State as well as corporations, universities, and the media worldwide, Esposito specializes in Islam, political Islam, and the impact of Islamic movements from North Africa to Southeast Asia. He has served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, Vice Chair of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy and is currently a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and President of the Executive Scientific Committee for the Maison de la Mediterranee’s 2005-2010 project, “The Mediterranean, Europe and Islam: Actors in Dialogue.”. Esposito is a recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s 2005 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion and of Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies. In 2003 he received the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Esposito is Editor-in-Chief of the 4 volume Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, a Book-of-the-Month Club and History Book Club selection, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam and The Islamic World: Past and Present. His more than 30 books include: Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (a Washington Post and Boston Globe best seller), What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?; Islam: The Straight Path; Islam and Politics; Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam (with John Voll); Modernizing Islam (with Francois Burgat); Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism or Reform?, Religion and Global Order (with M. Watson), Islam and Secularism in the Middle East (with Azzam Tamimi);Iran at the Crossroads (with R.K. Ramazani); The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact; Islam, Gender, and Social Change and Muslims on the Americanization Path and Daughters of Abraham (with Yvonne Haddad).

Women in Muslim Family Law; Voices of Resurgent Islam; Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (with John Donohue); Islam in Asia: Religion, Politics, and Society; and Islam and Development. Esposito’s books and articles have been translated into Arabic, Persian, Urdu, bahasa Indonesia, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese and European languages.

Esposito has been interviewed or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, ABC Nightline, CBS, NBC, and the BBC and in newspapers, magazines, and the media in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., he currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Dr. Jeanette P. Esposito.