Narratives of Academic Climbing

David Colander often refers to the brass ring in academics as tenure in a top 20 research department. These are the best jobs in academics for economists. The pay is very good, the teaching loads are light, the students are brilliant (both graduate and undergraduate), and the resources available to faculty to support research and travel are phenomenal.

The top 25 liberal arts colleges might have brilliant students, but the teaching loads are  heavy and the pay is lower.  Business schools tend to be good on teaching loads, resources and pay, but not great with respect to students.  Mid-level state universities might pay market rates or slightly below, but the teaching loads are higher, students are mediocre, and the environment is often less than desirable.  Colander is right, there is simply nothing like teaching at a school like Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, etc.

Let me be clear about something, NOBODY SHOULD EVER COMPLAIN ABOUT ANY COLLEGE TEACHING JOB.  It is the greatest job on earth.  We get paid to work with young people, talk about ideas we care passionately about, choose to write on subjects that are of interest to us, and pretty much set our own hours.  But within the academic world there are some jobs that are more desirable than others, some jobs that have more influence than others, and some jobs that are personally more rewarding.

I have taught at a small college, a large research private university, a mid-level business school within a state university, and a large research state university.  As a teacher of undergraduates I think the best experience would be in a small liberal arts college.  But as much as  I enjoy teaching undergraduates, to me there is nothing like working with enthusiastic and bright graduate students who themselves are striving to become college professors.  I love teaching graduate students.  And I think most of my students see the enjoyment that I have working with them and they would like to pursue a similar career path.  So it is with great excitement that I announce the moves of several of my former PhD students, 4 of whom will now be working with PhD students, and 1 will be working with elite undergraduates.

Peter Leeson will be moving from WVU to join me at GMU as an Assistant Professor of Economics. Pete will be teaching an undergraduate course in international development for the Global Affairs Program, an undergraduate course in Austrian Economics, and PhD level courses in Development Economics, and Political Economy and Public Policy II.  Pete joins a faculty that can boast of 2 Nobel Prize winners, some of the most recognizable names associated with the discipline in the mind of the public, top programs in law and economics, public choice, religion and economics, history of economic thought, cultural economics, economic history, and Austrian economics.  GMU is the best weird place to study economics in the world.  The hiring of Pete just made us "weirder" and "bester".  If you are serious about studying economics and political economy, I do think it would be hard to beat GMU.  I cannot wait for Pete to get here.

Chris Coyne will be moving from Hampden Sydney College to West Virginia University, where he will replace Pete Leeson and work with Russ Sobel to continue to build WVU into one of the really great programs world-wide in applied political economy.  Russ is arguably the leading empirical public choice economist of his generation, and Chris is in my opinion among the most insightful big-picture political economists around (see his book AFTER WAR: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy and Markets [Stanford University Press, 2007]).  The two of them together -- along with the other great colleagues at WVU -- will continue to build that program into a major research center.  Chris will be teaching the PhD course in development economics at WVU starting next fall.  Graduate students will flock to WVU.  It is a great atmosphere for learning, you have great professors, and the program does an excellent job of training its students.

Ben Powell will be moving from San Jose State University to Suffolk University in Boston. Suffolk has established a PhD program in Public Finance and Political Economy, and Ben will work to build that program into a national and international program.  He has already secured funding for graduate assistantships.  Students who go to Suffolk will learn a lot from Ben and be able to contribute not only to the scientific journals, but also to the public discourse about policy in an effective and sophisticated manner.  BTW -- Ben was absolutely FANTASTIC on Showtime's Penn and Teller show on sweatshops.

Virgil Storr will be moving after years of working in the private sector to join the faculty at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University to head up our new graduate student programs. Virgil is already the author of 1 book, he has 2 additional books in the works and several articles that he is working on with our students.   He is an extremely creative and thoughtful interdisciplinary scholar.  An outstanding colleague to work with, it will be a real joy to have this chance to work closely with him again, and also to see him build this gradaute student program.

Scott Beaulier will be moving from Mercer University to Beloit College in Wisc., where he will join Emily Chamlee Wright and Josh Hall to form one of the really dynamic trios in college teaching.  Scott is an oustanding teacher and scholar (and it turns out one helluva a long distance runner as well!).  I am sure we will have streams of students from Beloit coming to GMU.  Virgil was one of those Beloit students not that many years ago, and even more recently Emily has sent several students to work at Mercatus and IHS.  I think Beloit might now be the undergraduate college of choice for bright classical liberals with the 3 of them teaching there.

Enough bragging from a proud former teacher of these wonderful individuals.  But these guys are all fantastic teachers and scholars of economics and they care passionately about their craft and about liberty.  They are now in leveraged positions to influence undergraduates and graduate students for the betterment of the human sciences and for the advancement of the intellectual case for liberty.  There just is no room for pessimism and nay-sayers; the future is very bright indeed.

Colander's brass ring still eludes capture by young Austrians, but we are getting closer by moving to more leveraged horses on the academic merry-go-round.  If we can use our existing footholds to encourage in our young students a vision of social change that combines Nock's notion of the remnant with Pareto's notion of the elite, then perhaps the brass ring will be firmly in our grasp and the scientific, intellectual and policy world will move even further in our direction over the next decade.  When you meet young people such as Pete, Chris, Ben, Virgil, and Scott (let alone Ed Stringham) you cannot help but believe that anything is possible and in fact is very likely.  We might not call it Austrian economics when it gets to being taught regularly at Harvard, but if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it will be a duck whatever we call it!

Comments

[Dain]

What a shame Ben is leaving SJ state. The Austrian presence is the reason I'm attending in the fall. What a blow.

[Pearl]

Furor principum ad nauseam usque. Nemo, quamvis sit prudens, est, quin cottidie multa addiscere possit.

[NotanAustrian]

Does abuse written in Latin really help?

Please grow up. And who the hell are you anyway?

[Pearl]

Vescere bracis meis

I can't detect any abuse in my post above. It is absolutely not my problem if you feel embarassed when somebody uses Latin. For you in English:

Self praise is no recommendation.

[Peter Boettke]

As Walter Williams always says, "A dog that doesn't wag its own tail is not much of a dog."

And I don't consider it really self-praise because the credit all goes to the individuals I mention. But the reality is that never before in the history of the Austrian school experience in America have so many young scholars taught in PhD programs and had a major influence in shaping those programs.

This is a sign of progress. You don't have to get on-board, but it might be wise to step back a minute and look at what is being accomplished and realize how it is being accomplished. I think that was the point of what Pete was trying to say to the students coming after him.

It is not an issue of self-praise, it is an issue of celebrating accomplishment by individuals who are making an impact at such a young age. With such dynamic young individuals taking the lead, Austrian ideas have a shot that in the hands of the generation before them (mine) didn't get very far in the academic world.

I am just an older guy now telling everyone to make room for the next generation, they are succeeding where we failed. And to me this is the most exciting thing to watch that I could imagine. Perhaps Pearl doesn't want to see progress because it is more comfortable for some to see Austrianism as a movement that cannot succeed and thus its advocates must adopt the martyr attitude, rather than the attitude of achievement. I, for one, don't think we need any more martyrs, what we need is lots of examples of scientific success and progress in thought and application.

Ben's been on Showtime and quoted in the NYT on sweatshops; Leeson has been on fellowships to Harvard and LSE and published in top journals; Coyne's book will be the featured item in the Stanford University Press catalogue next fall; Beaulier has been invited to U of Penn to discuss his work on Botswana; and Storr's work was nominated for the best dissertation in Caribean studies. This isn't just insider Austrian/libertarian awards, but professional recognition that only comes from accomplished work. Professional recognitions that were all too rare in the previous generation of young Austrians. So if that isn't cause for celebration, then I really don't know what all this "movement" talk is about.

No, martyrs are not what we need; ambitious, accomplished, talented, and articulate scientists, scholars, and teachers is what we are looking for. And what a young crop we have found over the past 5 years and they happened to come out of GMU's program. We really just need to get out of the way and watch what these guys can do. It is a very exciting time for Austrian economists. I am betting on the future!

[NotALatinScholar]

Despite what he thinks he just wrote, I think Pearl's Latin phrase actually means something like: "The disgusting madness of princes. No one, no matter how wise they may be, can't learn a lot every day."

I see nothing about self-praise or recommendations.

[ottlakerambler]

Here, here Pete. You've done a fantastic job. You're a bit too optimistic, as I've always claimed, but you are accomplishing EXACTLY what you've set out to accomplish, and I can't fault you on that. You've done it with integrity and with great joy. Good for you, and your scholarly offspring. Let the dogs, on the other hand, return to their own vomit.

Your pal the now irrelevant "you know who I am."

[Pearl]

"The disgusting madness of princes. No one, no matter how wise they may be, can't learn a lot every day."

Furor principum would be more translated by "megalomania" and ad nauseam usque by "over and over again". You can translate them differently as well, but that's the distinction between interpreting and translating. But who cares, the message is the same.

The only thing written in this blog (by Boettke) is the almost ridiculous claim that GMU is the best place to study economics (the mayor of Des Moines, Iowa could also claim that his city is the best place to live). In addition, some GMU kids are going to teach economics at some (partial above the average)colleges and he is talking about AE at Harvard. I agree that GMU is still underrated with regard to its "official" ranking but the claims on this site are completely misleading. Due to the overpowering presence of GMU people in the blogosphere, one could really believe that it is the academic reality. So, some down-to-earth attitude is desperately needed. Hope, Frédéric Sautet writes again on the blog; at least, it is not only about self promotion of papers and self praise of GMU's outstanding place in economics.

[NotALatinScholar]

A looser, more concise translation of the whole thing would be: "The delusions of omniscience that powerful leaders have make me sick." It's not about megalomania, which is the delusion of omnipotence (and a classical Greek word to boot, so why you didn't quote some Greek instead: Are you not fluent in that language too?).

I think PB was just being proud of his students and suggesting that future Austrians will climb higher up the academic ladder than his generation ever did. That's not objectionable at all. It certainly does seem that GMU is having a lot of success producing successive generations of Austrian scholars. And as for Harvard, as someone else put it the other night, you don't run for second.

[Pearl]

No, unfortunately I do not master Ancient Greek, but I think that my Latin is pretty good. I know exactly that "furor principum" describes some specific form of megalomania and paranoia (certain roman emperors, etc.) But your fake email tells me that you what I'm talking about. Nevertheless, I think that it is pretty clear which allusions I intended to put forward. And yeah, I speak several foreign languages. Are you impressed?

[NotALatinScholar]

> Are you impressed?

Not with your Latin, no, if I'm being honest. Sorry.

[NotanAustrian]

"No, unfortunately I do not master Ancient Greek,"

Nor English it appears.

[Peter Boettke]

By the way Pearl, I said "best weird place to study economics", I didn't say "best place." In other posts I said the best place to study is the highest ranked program that will pay your full way to go there.

Now I happen to believe that what makes us weird at GMU is also what makes us the best place to study. But not everyone shares that view and if you don't then I would suggest attending one of the top 10 programs (which are well known in standard rankings).

[Pearl]

Nor English it appears.

Because I put an "A" in ancient Greek? Obviously, English is not my native language, what's the big deal? Ad hominem arguments suck by any means.

[NotALatinScholar]

Pearl, your English is great. It's your Latin that's the problem. I nearly wrote in an earlier post that you should avoid the "ad hominem" reply, and find it really funny that you've inappropriately used another Latin phrase.

[Pearl]

Ok, this topic is not really about Latin issues, but I just would like to know why "ad hominem" is inappropiately used.

I hate to quote Wikipedia but:

argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument to the person", "argument against the man") consists of replying to an argument by attacking or appealing to the person making the argument, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument.

Making fun of my English falls in this category, imho.

[NotALatinScholar]

NotanAustrian clearly wasn't attacking any argument. He or she was merely pointing out the irony of your making a mistake in English while explaining the you don't know Greek (you misused the word "master"). He or she was not conducting any kind of "ad hominem" attack on you. But in this case I think you understand what the Latin phrase means but displyed (and continue to display) a basic lack understanding of how actually to use it.

None of my business, and I'm clearly having fun and wasting way too much time with your Latin nonsense, but my advice to you is to stay away from dead languages. And unless you're prepared to take a bit of heat without looking for sanctuary in an "ad hominem" defense, try being a little less rude, insulting and abusive in future.

[Pearl]

Thank you very much for your wise explanation. But why can't you say "master ancient Greek" in a phrase. Google told me that even pages like the University of Maryland or the RecruiterMagazine used it in that way.

I will nevertheless stick to my Latin expressions given that I don't want to admit that 8 years of Latin were for nothing.

[NotAnEnglishTeacherEither]

"To master" means "to become proficient at" not "to be proficient at."

You English is great, though. It's your manners you need to work on.

[Chris@NYU]

I can't believe Hampden-Sydney is losing Coyne. I don't know if the rumors I heard were true, but that department is losing an amazing professor.