First Annual Gitner Family CAS Lecture Tackles “Advancing the Human Condition”
The first annual Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family CAS lecture brought together an exciting panel of Boston Univeristy faculty to discuss the challenges and opportunities of ‘Advancing the Human Condition’ and to kick off the BU Alumni Weekend 2014, on September 18.
The theme of ‘Advancing the Human Condition’ is, of course, the defining goal of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, but beyond that it is a goal that defines the university’s essential intellectual mission. It was fitting, therefore, that the panel brought together scholars from across the College of Arts and Sciences to think about the intellectual and research challenges that such a mission entails.
Held at the Tsai Performance Center and moderated by Dean Virginia Sapiro of the BU College of Arts and Sciences, the panel included professors Rosella Cappella (Political Science), Sharon Goldberg (Computer Science), Joe Harris (Sociology), Jeremy Menchik (Pardee School of Global Studies), Lucy Hutyra (Earth & Environment), and Henrik Selin (Pardee School of Global Studies). Capping the panel were concluding discussions from Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future Director Anthony Janetos and Prof. Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. A large number of alumni, students, staff, and members of the BU community attended the event, as did Gerald Gitner and members of the Gitner family whose generosity has endowed this annual series of lectures.
The discussion on “Advancing the Human Condition: An Agenda for Research and Education,” kicked off with brief insights from the panel of young faculty members on how their area of research and education can best respond to this challenge. Prof. Rosella Cappella, from the Department of Political Science, talked about how war – despite its goriness – has sometimes triggered advances in the human condition because it highlights the costs of not paying attention to the same. Prof. Sharon Goldberg, from the Department of Computer Science, discussed her work on cyber security and how it is affecting our very understanding of what progress in the human condition means. Prof. Joseph Harris, from Sociology, spoke about his work in global health care including in the context of the recent Ebola crisis.
Prof. Lucy Hutyra, from the Deaprtment of Earth & Environment, pointed out the need for better interdisciplinary analysis and data skills as one of the key education challenges for the modern univeisty, including in the area of climate change. Prof. Jeremy Menchik, from the Pardee School of Global Studies, chimed in a perpective on religion and international affairs and argued that the great challenge of our times are no different from those identified by Boston University’s most famous alumnus, Dr. Martin Luther King; they are only more global now. Wrapping up the panel, Prof. Henrik Selin, also from the Pardee School of Global Studies, spoke about the challenges to the global environment stressing that it is time to link these challenges to human development instead of viewing them as merely ecological.
Following a Q&A session with the audience, Prof. Anthony Janetos of the Pardee Center commented that the challenges we now face in human advancement are not phenomenon that take decades to unfold, the effects of these current challenges take only minutes or a few years to be seen and felt. He remarked that because of this we need to move beyond “scholarship that is interesting without being useful.”
In his wrap-up remarks Prof. Adil Najam, Dean of the Pardee School, apprecaited the breadth, depth, and berivity of the panelists. Dean Najam argued that in looking at them together these comments embodied three great challenges of our times: “the challenge of human insecurity, the challenge of human arrogance in the face on natural limits, and the challenge of global citizenship.” He linked these further to the mission of BU’s new Pardee School of Global Studies which, he said, seeks “peace that lasts, development that works, and knowledge that transforms.”
In her conclusion, Dean Virginia Sapiro of the BU College of Arts and Sciences thanked the Gitner family and the panelists and stressed that the path to better research and education for “advancing the human condition” lies through true interdisciplinary scholarship, not just in the social and natural sciences, but also in the arts and the humanities.