Emory University, private, coeducational institution in Atlanta, Georgia, supported by the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1836 as Emory College, it became Emory University in 1915. It is composed of nine units: Emory College, an undergraduate division of arts and sciences; Oxford College, a two-year undergraduate division in Oxford, Georgia; schools of business administration, law, medicine, nursing, public health, and theology; and a graduate school of arts and sciences. The university confers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

In 1982 former United States president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) founded the Carter Center of Emory University. The Carter Center brings together people and resources to foster democracy and help fight hunger, disease, and human rights abuses. The center is a division of Emory University. Other research institutes at the university include the Yerkes Primate Center, the Center for Ethics in Public Policy and the Professions, the Institute of African Studies, and the Emory Center for International Studies. Alumni of Emory University include politicians Newt Gingrich and Sam Nunn, and C. Vann Woodward, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1982.