| Founder(s) | John Kluge, James H. Billington |
|---|---|
| Established | 2000 |
| Mission | The Kluge Center’s mission, as established in 2000, is to reinvigorate the interconnection between thought and action, bridging the gap between scholarship and policymaking. To that end, the Center brings some of the world’s great thinkers to the Library to make use of the Library collections and engage in conversations addressing the challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.[1] |
| Focus | Public policy, humanities, social sciences, foreign policy, law, astrobiology |
| Faculty | 125-150 resident scholars per year |
| Staff | 8 |
| Key people | Kevin Butterfield (Director, 2022-present) [2] |
| Endowment | $60 million |
| Location | 101 Independence Avenue SE, Washington, D.C., United States |
| Website | www |
The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites and welcomes scholars to the Library of Congress to conduct research and interact with policymakers and the public. It also manages the Kluge Scholars' Council and administers the Kluge Prize at the Library of Congress.
Established in 2000 within the restored Thomas Jefferson Building, the Center is named for its benefactor, John W. Kluge who donated $60 million to support an academic center where accomplished senior scholars and junior post-doctoral fellows might gather to make use of the Library's collections and to interact with members of Congress.[3]
In addition, his gift established a $1 million Kluge Prize to be given in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in the human sciences.[4]
The Kluge Center invites three levels of scholars: senior scholars, post-doctoral fellows, and doctoral candidates. Past scholars have included Václav Havel, Jaroslav Pelikan, John Hope Franklin, Robert V. Remini, Romila Thapar, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Abdolkarim Soroush, David Grinspoon, Steven J. Dick, and Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick among many.
The Kluge Center hosts frequent public lectures, conferences, symposia and other scholarly events based on the work of its scholars.