Celeste Schenck's Biography

Celeste M. Schenck assumed office as the twelfth president of The American University of Paris on October 15, 2008. She is the first president to assume leadership of the university from within.

In her nearly twenty years at AUP, Schenck has served the university as Professor of Comparative Literature, Associate Dean for Curriculum Development, Vice President for Academic Innovation, Vice President for Development and Grant Planning, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean of the University, and Provost. As Chief Academic Officer of AUP, she focused on curriculum development, leading a major review of general education, founding the first MA programs and fostering the ones subsequently developed, and creating the division structure that frames the university’s academic program today. She attended as well to the integration and development of technology and teaching at AUP, creating the ARC space with all its attendance activities. Finally, she has been a major fundraiser for the university, raising well over three million dollars for academic programs, technology, scholarships, and infrastructure.

Prior to coming to France, Schenck was an Associate Professor with Tenure at Barnard College, where she held the Ann Whitney Olin Junior Chair for excellence in scholarship and teaching. While at Barnard, Schenck received several prestigious awards for her work in feminist literary studies and founded two important series, the Barnard New Women Poets Series, an annual poetry prize and set of paired readings, and Reading Women Writing, an imprimatur of Cornell University Press in international feminist criticism. She is the author of four books, the first two on literary subjects, such as the pastoral and women’s autobiography, and the second two with colleague Susan Perry on women, culture and development practices.

Schenck holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, summa cum laude, from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. from Brown University in Comparative Literature.