John Esposito

John Louis Esposito (born May 19, 1940) is an American professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is also the director of the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding at Georgetown.

Early life

Esposito was born in Brooklyn, New York City on 19 May 1940. He was raised a Roman Catholic in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, and spent a decade in a Catholic monastery. After taking his first degree he worked as a management consultant and high-school teacher. He then studied and received a masters in theology at St. John's University. He earned a PhD at Temple University, Pennsylvania in 1974, studying Islam and held postdoctoral appointments at Harvard and Oxford.

Academic career

For nearly twenty years after completing his PhD, Esposito had taught religious studies (including Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam) at the College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit college in Massachusetts. At Holy Cross, Esposito held the Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies position, was the chair of the Department of Religious Studies, and the director of college's Center for International Studies. At Georgetown University, Esposito holds the position of University Professor and teaches as both Professor of Religion and International Affairs and Professor of Islamic Studies. Esposito also works as a Senior Scientist at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where he co-authored Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, which was published in March 2008.

John Esposito (pianist)

John Esposito (born 1953) is an American jazz pianist of advanced bebop tendencies. Known as a composer for his own groups and a versatile sideman capable of all styles from stride piano to free improvisation, he is a pianist highly influenced by modernism (Bartók in particular), and capable of playing off of several rhythmic and harmonic levels at once. As manifested in music for his quintet (with Eric Person on sax, Greg Glassman on trumpet, Kenny Davis on bass, and Pete O'Brien on drums) and trio (with Ira Coleman on bass and Pete O'Brien on drums), Esposito's compositions are couched in an expansion of bebop harmony, often using rhythmic schemes of complex and suble metric modulation. Some of his pieces are transformations of jazz standards rendered unrecognizable by such techniques as running the chord progression backwards, or using a complex system of chord substitutions.

Born in Brooklyn, Esposito was raised in the Hudson Valley in a family that included policemen but also artists and musicians. His grandfather, a violin maker, was a jazz violinist and reed player, and played in the 1920s with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Esposito attended the State University of New York at Albany. Majoring in musical composition, he drew influences from visiting composers who came through, including John Cage, Robert Ashley, Frederic Rzewski, and Elliot Carter. At the same time, however, he found himself drawn more to improvisation, and, despite a rather late start, took up jazz piano. (As a teenager, he had already played harmonica in a blues band.) In 1980 Esposito moved to New York City, where he worked with saxophonist Arthur Rhames, a neglected, almost forgotten figure who died of AIDS-related illness at 32 (1989), and who some nevertheless feel was the successor to John Coltrane's mantle as the greatest creative performer on that instrument.

John Esposito (poker player)

John Esposito Jr (born June 7) is an American professional poker player who won a World Series of Poker bracelet in Limit Hold'em.

Esposito a veteran professional poker player who has 25 money finishes at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) including five final tables and six cashes in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event.

Poker Career

Esposito has been a regular on the poker tournament circuit since 1985 and has won numerous titles in different poker variants. He first cashed in the World Series of Poker in 1987 in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event and first cashed in the Main Event in 1989, just missing the final table with and 11th place finish.

He won his bracelet with a first place finish in the $2,500 Limit Hold'em at the 1999 WSOP beating out fellow professional Mimi Tran heads-up, earning a cash prize of $219,225. That final table also included top tournament players T.J. Cloutier and David Chiu.

Esposito also has multiple high finishes in the $10,000 Main Event Championship including 11th in 1989, 12th in 1995, 19th in 1996 26th in 2001, 108th in 2004 and 32nd in the 2011 WSOP.

John Esposito (disambiguation)

John Esposito (born 1940) is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University.

John Esposito may also refer to: