Professor Harpham, 55, holds the Pierce Butler Chair in English Literature at Tulane University. He is an internationally recognized scholar who has published five books and is a regular contributor to leading journals in the humanities. An early and forceful advocate for the "ethical turn" in literary studies, Professor Harpham founded and directed the Graduate Program in Literary Theory at Tulane, where he has also served as chairman of the Department of English. He has been awarded grants by the American Council of Learned Societies, the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he is a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

John P. Birkelund, Chairman of the Center's Board and of the search committee for the new director, stated, "Geoffrey Harpham is precisely the kind of leader we sought. He has a distinguished record of intellectual achievement, he has breadth of vision, and he is an articulate spokesman for the humanities. The Center will be in good hands." Mr. Birkelund commended the Trustees who served on the search committee for setting appropriately high standards and for working diligently to identify a candidate who fulfilled them.

The National Humanities Center, located in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, is a privately incorporated independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Since 1978 the Center has awarded fellowships to leading scholars in the humanities, whose work at the Center has resulted in the publication of more than 800 books, including a number of prize-winning volumes. The Center also sponsors programs to strengthen teaching in secondary schools and colleges, and it seeks to communicate the best work in the humanities to a broad national audience through publications and its Web site (nationalhumanitiescenter.org). Under the leadership of W. Robert Connor, the Center's endowment has increased from $10 million to $50 million, its fellowship and education programs have been broadened and expanded, and the Center has gained increasing recognition as a critical institution in the vanguard of humanistic studies.