Through discussion and reflection, the Council assists in implementing an American tradition linking the activities of thinkers and doers, those who are engaged in the world of ideas with those engaged in the world of affairs.
2012 Scholars Council Members
About the Scholars Council Members
Writer-at-large for the The Washington Post; Former editor-in-chief of Book World.
Manuel CastellsLeading sociologist and 2012 Holberg Memorial International Prize winner.
Antonio Damasio
Neuroscience professor at USC; Head of the Brain and Creativity Institute.
Jean Bethke Elshtain
One of America’s foremost public intellectuals; University of Chicago professor.
Toyin Falola
University of Texas Austin professor; prolific author of books on African history.
Philip W. Gold
Neuroendocrine Research chief at the NIH Clinical Center since 1974.
Hugh Heclo
Professor of American national politics, philosophy of history, religion and politics.
W. Roger Louis
Kerr Chair of English History and Culture at the University of Texas; author/editor 30 books.
Margaret MacMillan
Professor of History at Oxford and Toronto Universities; Warden of St. Antony’s College.
Mark A. Noll
Specialist in the History of Christianity in the U.S.; Professor at Univ. of Notre Dame.
John Rogers Searle
Professor of Philosophy at UC Berkeley. Author of 12 books and more than 150 articles.
William Julius Wilson
1998 National Medal of Science winner; One of Time's America's 25 most influential people.
John Witte, Jr.
Law professor at Emory University; specialist in legal history, marriage, and religious liberty.
Gordon S. Wood
Professor emeritus at Brown University; recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Pauline Yu
President of the American Council of Learned Societies; noted author.
About the Council
A body of distinguished scholars, convened by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize.
Members of the Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress under a separate Charter appended to the Kluge Center’s Charter.
Read the Scholars Council Charter
About Past Members
- Bernard Bailyn
- Baruch Blumberg
- Judith Margaret Brown
- Sara Castro-Klaren
- Julia Ching
- Robert Fogel
- Bronislaw Geremek
- Toru Haga
- Gertrude Himmelfarb
- Vyacheslav Ivanov
- Bruce Mazlish
- Walter Allan McDougall
- Jaroslav Pelikan
- Jessica Rawson
- Amartya Sen
- Wole Soyinka
- James Turner
- Mario Vargas Llosa
- M. Crawford Young