John Esposito

John Esposito
John Esposito in Sarajevo, October 2013
Born	(1940-05-19) May 19, 1940 (age 76) Brooklyn, New York City

John Louis Esposito (born May 19, 1940) is an American professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is also the director of the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding at Georgetown.

Esposito was born in Brooklyn, New York City on 19 May 1940. He was raised a Roman Catholic in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, and spent a decade in a Catholic monastery. After taking his first degree he worked as a management consultant and high-school teacher. He then studied and received a masters in theology at St. John's University. He earned a PhD at Temple University, Pennsylvania in 1974, studying Islam and held postdoctoral appointments at Harvard and Oxford.

For nearly twenty years after completing his PhD, Esposito had taught religious studies (including Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam) at the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit college in Massachusetts. At Holy Cross, Esposito held the Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies position, was the chair of the Department of Religious Studies, and the director of college's Center for International Studies. At Georgetown University, Esposito holds the position of University Professor and teaches as both Professor of Religion and International Affairs and Professor of Islamic Studies. Esposito also works as a Senior Scientist at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where he co-authored Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, which was published in March 2008.