Internal Advisory Committee

Jan Love, PhD

Jan Love, began her tenure as the ninth dean of the Candler School of Theology on January 1, 2007.
Most recently, Dean Love has been the chief executive officer of the Women’s Division of the United Methodist Church, the administrative arm of the approximately one-million member United Methodist Women, which has a staff of 70, annual expenditures of about $30 million, and programs and property in more than 100 locations in the United States and 60 countries around the world. She was previously on the faculty at the University of South Carolina in the departments of Religious Studies and Political Science, where she directed the International Studies MA and PhD programs, as well as numerous doctoral dissertations and masters and Honors College theses.

Dean Love served as a representative of The United Methodist Church to the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1975-2006. She served on the WCC board of directors for over two decades and led the WCC delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.  In 2000 during the church’s General Conference, she was recognized by the United Methodist Council of Bishops for “Exceptional Leadership in Ecumenical Arenas.”

A graduate of Eckerd College (B.A.) and Ohio State University (M.A., Ph.D.), her teaching interests include world Christianity, religion and world politics, conflict transformation, and international relations.  She is the author of two books on international relations, Southern Africa in World Politics: Local Aspirations and Global Entanglements (Westview Press, 2005) and The U.S. Anti-Apartheid Movement: Local Activism in Global Politics (Praeger Publishers, 1985), and scores of articles and book chapters.

Back to Internal Advisory Committee List