Southern Methodist University hires new director of presidential studies

By Melissa Repko

Along with a presidential library, Southern Methodist University will soon have a presidential scholar.

Jeffrey Engel has been hired as the university's director of Presidential History Projects and associate professor of presidential studies. He will oversee a team of scholars studying U.S. presidential policies, as founding director of the university's Presidential History Project.

Engel currently teaches history at Texas A&M University and is director of programming at its Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs. He will join the SMU faculty in July.

 The hire comes as SMU readies itself for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in 2013 and plans academic programs to capitalize on the campus addition.

Engel's wife, Katherine Engel, will also join SMU's faculty. She will move from associate professor of history at Texas A&M to SMU's Religious Studies Department. She is an affiliate fellow of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University.