Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen was recently named a visiting professor for the upcoming academic year at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.
Sen will make three visits to the BU campus beginning this fall, delivering a series of lectures entitled “The Future of Identity” as well as availing his knowledge and expertise to students and faculty.
Of Sen’s three visits to BU, two will last for a week and the third will last 10 days. During this time Sen will be open to meeting with both BU students and faculty members. The exact dates of his appearances are still being discussed.
Sen’s “The Future of Identity” series will consist of four to six lectures, said professor David Fromkin, director of the Pardee Center. The topics of the lectures are as yet unknown, though they will at least in part explore the role of group membership in self-identification. Fromkin is hopeful the lectures may be compiled in book form following their completion.
“Dr. Sen is the living embodiment of the interdisciplinary Renaissance Man,” Fromkin said. “We are extraordinarily fortunate to have him. It will be very exciting for all of us having him on campus for a few weeks.”
Sen received the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in merging economic study with social welfare. His contributions to the study of welfare economics, as well as his writings on world poverty and famine, have made a difference in people’s lives, Fromkin said.
“He is not an ivory tower intellectual,” Fromkin said. “He is an engaged intellectual.”
“What makes him so special is he’s a brilliant scholar and a humanitarian,” said BU spokeswoman Laura Mikols. “Dr. Sen has devoted his career to illuminating ways for societies to improve the well-being of its poorest members.”
Sen is the first scholar to hold the visiting professorship position at the Pardee Center, which was established last spring as a gift from BU alumnus Frederick S. Pardee. During the course of negotiations with Pardee, an advisory committee formulated a list names for the Center’s first visiting professor position. The list was brought to BU President Jon Westling, who determined Sen to be the top choice, according to Fromkin.
“Professor Sen is the outstanding authority on the nature of economic development,” Westling said. “As the first Frederick S. Pardee visiting professor, he will direct our attention to the issues of growth, freedom and happiness that will shape human society in the century ahead of us and beyond.”
“[Sen’s professorship] in effect launches the Pardee program and thus has a special significance in showing the broadness of the program and the directions in which we all hope it will go,” said Fromkin.
The purpose of the Center is to study and promote intellectual discussion of issues that will affect the longer-term future, which the Center identifies as the next 35 to 200 years. Still in development, the Center will be located on Bay State Road and is expected to be ready by Labor Day weekend, according to Kim Guerster of the Development Office.
“We think [Sen’s professorship] will set the tone,” Fromkin said. “When we approach potential visiting professors in the future, they will be more likely to accept because of the distinguished and auspicious start Dr. Sen will have made of it.”
Mikols said, “He has a perspective on the world that will benefit students and faculty.”
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