Prof. Marc Landy (Political Science) considers his Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award the “most exciting honor I’ve ever received.” (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)
‘Teaching Is Where My Soul Is’
Marc Landy has an impressive track record as a scholar and author, but he feels he is at his best in the classroom — and so do his students
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Professor of Political Science Marc Landy more than qualifies as someone at the top of his scholarly profession: a distinguished portfolio of books and articles; regular contributions of expertise and insight to the media; and a continual array of projects — most recently, co-devising a new model for the federal government’s role in dealing with large-scale disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.But most gratifying for Landy is his selection for the 2009 Teaching Award by the Boston College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the most
prestigious academic honorary society in the United States.
“This is the most exciting honor I’ve ever received. Nothing compares,” says Landy, who has taught at BC since 1992. “I like doing research, I like doing public speaking, but teaching is where my soul is, and I think it’s what I do best.”
He’ll get no argument from one student who nominated him for the Phi Beta Kappa award: “Professor Landy has a boundless enthusiasm for teaching for learning. His interest in his field is evident when he’s in the classroom as well as outside it. He really cares about his students and has made my studies at BC very rewarding.”
Given that both of his parents were teachers — his father taught junior high school math, his mother kindergarten, first and second grades — Landy’s career choice would appear to have been predestined.
Not so, says Landy, who in his New York City youth was an avid reader of the New York Post’s coverage of sports and politics.
“I loved both things, but I wasn’t an athlete, and I simply found politics more compelling than just about anything else,” he says.
Yet as he grew older, Landy also found teaching even more to his liking, and that working in politics wasn’t as enjoyable as he thought
it would be. So he earned his doctorate in government from Harvard and joined the faculty at a junior college in Kentucky, and he was on his way.
“The thing I’ve always liked about teaching,” he says, “is provoking lively discussion in class to fix on the truth of hard matters. I want to get students engaged and to see that they won’t be denigrated for taking a stand.”
The students in his classes over the years have become increasingly well-read and skilled at research, says Landy, all of which has further raised the quality of classroom discussions.
“I think BC students are well above the norm in their capacity to be open-minded, especially in informal conversations and settings,” says Landy, who is teaching Fundamental Concepts of Politics, American Federalism, and The American Presidency this semester. “I’m always impressed at their ability to comprehend and accept new ideas or concepts.”
Meanwhile, Landy also continues to devote attention to his latest project, advocating a reform for the federal government’s handling of
disasters. Landy and Richard Nathan, who is co-director of the State University of New York Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government,
have proposed creating a temporary “officer-in-charge” to — as Landy puts it — “cut red tape and crack heads” as well as begin work on an effective recovery plan.
“We’re not suggesting a ‘czar,’ in the political use of the word,” says Landy. “Too often, a czar is a talented person who essentially
duplicates the mission of participating agencies and departments, until the lines of authority get muddled. The ‘officer-in-charge’
would consolidate the federal involvement. It has to be someone who can recognize the difficulties in putting together a disaster response and act accordingly, and also be able to write up a plan for recovery.”
The proposal would require a change in the Stafford Act, which authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and
therefore would need congressional approval. Landy and Nathan’s paper — which they are using as the basis for a book — stems from a three-year study, sponsored by the Ford Foundation and conducted by the Rockefeller Institute and the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, of the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita on 37 Gulf Coast governmental jurisdictions.
Sean Smith can be reached at sean.smith.1@bc.edu