Maybe it's something about engaging in intense discussions in the hallway with teachers at Taft, maybe it's the stimulation that comes later in college, but a number of Taft alumni have continued studying beyond graduate school and now stand in front of the classroom themselves. We asked seven alumni who are professors at some of the nation's most prestigious colleges and universities about life in the hallowed halls of academia and their thoughts on the future of higher education. We know, of course, that in addition to these seven, there are many other dedicated alumni teaching in colleges and universities. This is simply our glimpse into the current world of higher education.

Nikki Mayhew Greene '93

"There is no greater satisfaction than hearing a student say that you've opened up their mind to new possibilities." —NIKKI MAYHEW GREENE '93

DR. NIKKI MAYHEW GREENE '93 is assistant professor of art history at Wellesley College, examining African- American and African identities, the body, feminism, and music in modern and contemporary art. On sabbatical for the 2016–17 academic year, she is the Richard D. Cohen Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. She is finalizing her first book manuscript, Rhythms of Grease, Grime, Glass, and Glitter: The Body in Contemporary Black Art.

"In general, my book looks at the intersection between visual art, music, and black identity," Greene says. "For my last chapter, I have been doing a lot of reading, listening, and viewing of Michael Jackson material, photographs, albums, concert performances, you name it. So much fun!"

Q: What's the best part of your job?

A: I love being a student, and I love public speaking. Academia allows me to combine my passions for art, research, and teaching into a single career. As an art historian, every time I walk into a museum, I'm "working." Then, the next time, I can drag my students with me. What job could be cooler than that?

Teaching is a great privilege. At Wellesley, I have the honor of teaching some of the brightest and most ambitious students in the world that come from a wide range of socioeconomic, political, sexual orientation, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. I am often in awe of their brilliance, which motivates me to learn more and to offer them a distinctive experience in my classroom. There is no greater satisfaction than hearing a student say that you've opened up their mind to new possibilities.

Elizabeth Howe Bradley '80

"How can we make the connection between studying history, literature, arts, and a broad range of humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences, and greater capacity to address global, pressing problems?"—ELIZABETH HOWE BRADLEY '80

DR. ELIZABETH HOWE BRADLEY '80 will become the 11th president of Vassar College in July, following more than 20 years at Yale University, where she was head of Branford College and was the director of Yale's Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and founder and faculty director of the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute. Bradley's career has focused on improving health care across the globe. She has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and three books, including The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less.

"This is a critical time for leadership in liberal arts education," she says, "with many complex issues facing our campuses, our nation, and our world. Working with students here in the U.S. and globally, I have seen how access to higher education changes lives, and it makes me even more committed to making certain we maintain Vassar as a diverse and inclusive community."

Q: Where do you see academia going in the next decade?

A: Academia has challenges [facing it] to demonstrate its value to our social fabric. How can we make the connection between studying history, literature, arts, and a broad range of humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences, and greater capacity to address global, pressing problems? How can we be living examples of engaged pluralism where diverse students and faculty manage differences in ways that strengthen rather than divide campuses? Those are the 21st-century challenges for academia—and if higher education can lead in demonstrating these kinds of communities, we will have contributed importantly to the country and globe.

Dr. Robeson Taj Frazier '99

"It's high time that we as a country really take action regarding what kind of ethics we truly want reflected in our education system—not just regarding what we teach, but also who gets the opportunity to learn and be a contributing member to the space, and at what cost."—ROBESON TAJ FRAZIER '99

DR. ROBESON TAJ FRAZIER '99 is an associate professor in the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California and director of the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA). His research and teaching explore popular culture, Black political culture, urban history, and the formation and conditions of globalization. He is the author of The East Is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination, and coproducer of the documentary film The World is Yours.

Q: Why did you decide to go into academia?

A: I've always had a curiosity for information and a passion for the practice of unceasing questioning and self-questioning. From a young age I was constantly surrounded and influenced by different kinds of genuine intellectuals, artists, and critical thinkers. Academia seemed like a fruitful institutional place to generate more interactions with such people, as well as build my own legacy of critical and creative work.

Q: What research are you doing now?

A: Right now I'm working on a cultural history of masculinity and race that weaves autobiography with cultural analysis, interviews, and archival work. I'm also directing an institute that explores the role of media, the arts, culture, and technology in struggles for identity and social justice.

Q: What's the best part of your job?

A: The best part is twofold: 1) spending meaningful time interacting with and engaging bright minds of different generations, class backgrounds, and life experiences; and 2) having the privilege of being afforded time to learn and think deeply, and then communicate these evolving thoughts and analysis via writing, teaching, public speaking, and facilitating workshops.

Q: Where do you see academia going in the next decade?

A: That's a tough question. Like many institutions, academia is becoming more privatized, and access to higher education is becoming more limited as a result of the rapidly increasing cost of attending a university. It's high time that we as a country really take action regarding what kind of ethics we truly want reflected in our education system—not just regarding what we teach, but also who gets the opportunity to learn and be a contributing member to the space, and at what cost.

Dr. David B. Edwards '70

"Over the last decade or so, much of the social sciences and the humanities have become increasingly insular, too tied up in identity politics, and insufficiently attentive to the problems of the world beyond the confines of the university."—DAVID B. EDWARDS '70

DR. DAVID B. EDWARDS '70 is the James N. Lambert '39 Professor of Anthropology at Williams College. He has been conducting research on and writing about Afghanistan for more than 30 years. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Michigan, he is the author of three books on Afghanistan—Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan (May 2017, for more see page 14); Before Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad (2002); and Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier (1996)—along with numerous articles on Afghan history, religion, and culture. Edwards is also the codirector and producer of the film Kabul Transit (2006), which was an official selection at many film festivals. Edwards has received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. He has also been a Fulbright Fellow, and in 2002 was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation.

Q: Why did you decide to go into academia?

A: I decided to go into academia quite by chance. I did not have a great academic record in college (or at Taft). I excelled in the summers, working in an immunization program in Guatemala, voter registration in Mississippi, a salmon boat in Alaska, and hitchhiking across North Africa. After college, I spent two years in Afghanistan and fell in love with the country. That experience led me to anthropology, the one academic discipline for which I was suited, after having failed at my original ambition of becoming a novelist. I just completed my third book, Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan. I have another book that's about half completed that is more or less a memoir of my experiences working in Afghanistan since the mid-1970s, and I also am working on a book on Czech culture and history.

Q: Where do you see academia going in the next decade?

A: It's difficult to predict where academia is going. Over the last decade or so, much of the social sciences and the humanities have become increasingly insular, too tied up in identity politics, and insufficiently attentive to the problems of the world beyond the confines of the university. If there is a silver lining to our recent election, it might be that it galvanizes sectors of society that have been in the doldrums in recent years—journalism and academia, in particular.

Q: What's the best part of your job?

A: The best part of the job is the flexibility it affords. Teaching at a small liberal arts college, with good students, and teaching anthropology, I get to teach on a wide range of subjects, basically whatever interests me.

Dr. Jesse Lander '84

"If the current situation teaches us anything, it is that the interpretive skills and the ability to think historically that have been the backbone of humanities disciplines are more essential than ever."—JESSE LANDER '84

DR. JESSE LANDER '84 is the chair of the English Department at Notre Dame University.

Q: What is the best part of academia?

A: Having smart colleagues and brilliant students. As chair, I feel lucky to be able to help my faculty succeed as writers, scholars, and teachers. Though I remain deeply committed to my own research, and am eager to get started on my next book project, which will be about the long history of Shakespeare quotation, I find myself increasingly concerned about undergraduate teaching. I worry that early-period material doesn't get the attention it deserves; even English majors tend to want to focus on contemporary writers. We face a significant challenge: attracting greater numbers of students while remaining true to our disciplinary identity.

Q: Where do you see academia going in the next decade?

A: My hope is that we will soon see a resurgence in the humanities. The theory wars of the '90s, the extraordinary success and cultural cachet of the tech sector, and the financial collapse of 2008 all damaged the appeal and prestige of the humanities, but if the current situation teaches us anything, it is that the interpretive skills and the ability to think historically that have been the backbone of humanities disciplines are more essential than ever. I don't expect we will return to the numbers that were typical in the '70s and '80s, but I do expect that our numbers will improve as more students seek an educational experience that will allow them to engage questions of meaning and value.

Dr. Jennifer Burns '93

DR. JENNIFER BURNS '93 is an associate professor of history at Stanford University, where she teaches courses on American political, cultural, and intellectual history. As a historian of the 20th century United States, she is working at these intersections and how they play out in policy and politics.

Q: How did you decide to go into academia?

A: Before I went to college, it never occurred to me that being a college professor was a job. I wanted to be a journalist. I was the editor of the Taft Papyrus, and that was a role I really enjoyed. However, I remember early in college sitting in a class on European history, and the professor strolled in wearing his black turtleneck and holding a cup of coffee, and began the lecture, "In the history of western civilization..." and the thought went through my head, this is a cool job to have. A lot of people warned me how difficult it was to find work in academia—I still warn my students of this, and the employment climate has gotten worse. But for the lucky few who make it, being a college professor is a great life. I am currently writing a biography of the economist Milton Friedman, who was also an important figure in the conservative movement. I am learning a lot about the history of economics, which I only studied a little bit in college. What interests me are the connections between economics and politics.

Q: What's the best part of academia?

A: The best part is the time and freedom to explore whatever it is that catches my interest intellectually. I love to read and write, and those are essential parts of the job. I also have a great deal of freedom to structure my own time, as long as I get the work done and the classes taught.

Q: Where do you see academia going in the next decade?

A: Unfortunately, I think academia will become even more bifurcated as our society becomes more divided. There is a vast difference between the top 100 schools in the country and the rest. At the top tier, students are given a rigorous education, by and large, and most professors and teaching staff can make a decent living. But the rise of for-profit schools will erode standards. It is also clear we are facing a crisis of student debt. I'm not sure how it will play out, but it is not sustainable for so many students to graduate with such significant debt.

Q: What's been the biggest change you've seen in the classroom?

A: Technology is probably the biggest change. In the classroom, smartphones and laptops can be a real distraction. Also, with the rise of the flipped classroom—parts of the instruction available online—it can mean students discount the face to face, community aspect of education. Social media has also been disruptive. Ideally, college is a time for reflection and experimentation. But in a few seconds an email, video, or tweet can go viral, pulling students and professors into the news cycle and politicizing the campus. The acrimonious and angry tone of ensuing debates is the opposite of the connections we are trying to foster. Students deserve the space and time to work out their ideas without the whole world watching.

Dr. Catherine Stanger '80

DR. CATHERINE STANGER '80 is an associate professor at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, studying behavioral interventions with adolescents and their families. She has conducted extensive research on the development and evaluation of innovative family-based interventions, specializing in parenting interventions for diverse populations including substance-abusing parents and adolescents with substance-use problems. Stanger's clinical research has focused on innovative ways to use incentives to motivate behavior change in both teens and parents, and she has collaborated with groups across the country to use her interventions.

Q: What research are you doing now?

A: I primarily develop and test interventions to help adolescents improve their health. Much of this work over the past decades has focused on interventions for adolescent substance-use problems, but most recently has included adolescents with type 1 diabetes and adolescents with obesity. My background is in a field called developmental psychopathology, or the study of the processes throughout childhood and adolescence that result in mental health problems. One idea that has informed my interventions is that unhealthy behaviors often have immediate rewards (drug use, eating junk food), and negative consequences that are often far off in the future. So we try to offset the immediate benefits of unhealthy behavior and motivate people to make healthier choices by offering immediate rewards for making healthier choices. Offering teens monetary incentives for abstinence improves substance-use treatment outcomes over and above evidence-based counseling approaches. Research in psychology has tended to focus narrowly on specific conditions—depression, substance use, obesity—but there is growing evidence that there are similar processes that underlie many conditions. We are also working on ways to use technology (smartphones, the web) to deliver our interventions.

Bonnie Blackburn-Penhollow '84 is a writer living in Fort Wayne, Indiana.