Harvard Professor to Head Danforth Center on Religion and Politics

R. Marie Griffith, a professor of religion at Harvard University has been named director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University.

In a press release, Wash U Chancellor Mark Wrighton said the appointment will take effect July 1.

Griffith has been known as a pioneer in the study of modern evangelical women since publication of her first book, God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (1997).

Before joining Harvard in 2009, she was professor of religion at Princeton University from 2003-09 and director of the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Princeton from 2007-09. From 1999 to 2003, she served as associate director of Princeton’s Center for the Study of Religion.

According to the press release, Griffith will be responsible for leading the intellectual mission of the center, recruiting four permanent center faculty and developing the center’s programs and teaching.