February 12, 2008
An Inauguration Event
Faculty discuss their role as public intellectuals
From left: Claudio Grossman, Caleen Jennings, Neil Kerwin, Robert Jernigan, and Jamin Raskin (Photo by Jeff Watts)
Kicking off a series of events during his inauguration week, AU President Neil Kerwin hosted a panel Feb. 4 of distinguished faculty that explored the role of academics as public intellectuals.
Washington College of Law (WCL) dean Claudio Grossman, WCL professor Jamin Raskin, performing arts professor Caleen Jennings, and mathematics and statistics professor Robert Jernigan shared their experiences and discussed the value of their work both outside and inside the classroom.
“Over the past 100 years, our faculty has been extremely active in taking their professional work from the campus into a number of different communities,” Kerwin said. “As high a regard as I have for these four people, we could have filled this panel 100 times with people who have had their own effect.”
Jernigan, on sabbatical and celebrating his birthday, discussed statistical projects he has worked on to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration better predict the weather and the Environmental Protection Agency learn more about acid rain.
“All in all they’ve been excellent experiences,” said Jernigan, who also has worked with the Smithsonian Institute. “I’ve learned a lot and been able to contribute a lot.”
Raskin was elected to the Maryland Senate in 2006 and described his service in Annapolis as “enriching his teaching.” Jennings discussed her close relationship with a former student, Patrick Crowley, who both benefited from her belief in theatre as a vessel of social change and in turn inspired her. Grossman spoke about his work in the field of human rights.
“If there is an institution with this tremendous value of confronting everything critically, it is the university,” Grossman said. “There are different methods of being a professor, and perhaps the beauty of it is in the pluralism. What we can do is share experiences with tremendous modesty. We can try to teach people how to think.”
