Meet Carolyn

Carolyn Thompson Brown is retired director of the Office of Scholarly Programs and the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. In that capacity she provided vision and direction to programs that fund the world’s most accomplished and most promising scholars for periods of residency to conduct research in the Library’s collections. She also organized conferences, seminars, and other scholarly events. The Poetry and Literature Program, which hosts the Poet Laureate of the United States, was also under her direction. Previously, she led the Collections and Services Directorate, overseeing collections development, collections management, reference, and public outreach for the general, special, and Area Studies collections. This followed several years leading the Area Studies collections and the Federal Research Division. Her professional writings examine the interrelationship of literature, culture, and psychology with special focus on modern Chinese literature. She is the author of Reading Lu Xun through Carl Jung, a book on spiritual healing in the short stories of 20th Century China's most famous writer. Carolyn holds a BA in Asian studies, an MA in Chinese literature both from Cornell University, and a PhD in literature from the American University.