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. 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 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 PhD in political science from Columbia University, 1981, where she also received a certificate from the Middle East Institute. She was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from Monmouth University in 2002. From 1981 to 1986, she was an assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University.