Jane Dammen McAuliffe is Dean of the College at Georgetown University and Professor in the Department of Arabic. She is also President-Elect of the American Academy of Religion.She was Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department for the Study of Religion, which she chaired, and in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. Previously she had been on the faculty of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and served as associate dean there.

She has published primarily in the areas of Qur'anic studies and Muslim-Christian relations.The title of this lecture is, "The Path of Guidance: The Quran and Its Interpretation."