University Professors
In 1979,
The George Washington University established the post of University
Professor. These endowed positions bring scholars of major
national and international stature to GW. Currently, GW has
five University Professors.
Peter James Caws, who has been University
Professor of Philosophy since 1982, was born in England and
received an undergraduate degree in physics from the University
of London. His PhD, in philosophy, is from Yale University.
An eminent scholar in the philosophy of science, Caws has
also published on a wide range of other philosophical topics,
including structuralism, ethics, and the French philosopher
Jean-Paul Sartre. He has been active on the international
philosophical scene, and his academic awards include a Rockefeller
Foundation humanities fellowship. He is also a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Amitai Etzioni is noted for his influence
on public policy. He is the leader of the communitarian movement,
which promotes the values of community and morality in modern,
democratic societies. Before accepting an appointment in 1979
as GW's first University Professor, he was a guest scholar
at the Brookings Institution. From 197980, he was a senior
advisor to the White House under the administration of President
Jimmy Carter. Etzioni is the author of several books, including
The New Golden Rule, which won the Simon Wiesenthal Center's
1997 Tolerance Book Award. His latest book, "Next: The
Road to the Good Society," was published in 2001 by Basic
Books. Etzioni is frequently published in the country's leading
newspapers. He served as the president of the American Sociological
Association from 1994-95, and is the editor of The Responsive
Community: Rights and Responsibilities, a communitarian
quarterly.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who was born and raised
in Iran, received his doctorate in the history of science
and philosophy from Harvard University in 1958. He has been
University Professor of Islamic Studies at GW since 1984.
Nasr has lectured widely throughout the United States, Western
Europe, India, Australia, Japan, and most of the Islamic world.
He was the first Muslim to give the celebrated Gifford Lectures
in the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Edinburgh.
The author of more than 20 books and 200 journal articles,
Nasr is an expert on Islamic studies, comparative philosophy
and religion, the philosophy of art, and the philosophical
and religious dimensions of environmental issues.
James N. Rosenau, University Professor of
International Affairs, is a renowned international political
theorist. His research focuses on the dynamics of change in
world politics and the overlap of domestic and foreign affairs,
resulting in 37 books and more than 160 articles. Several
of his books are considered key texts for training scholars
and analysts in international political theory. Rosenau earned
his PhD at Princeton University. Before coming to GW in 1992,
he was a professor and director of the Institute for Transnational
Studies at the University of Southern California. He is among
the most well-recognized scholars in his field.
Kenneth F. Schaffner, one of the nation's
leading medical ethicists, has been University Professor of
Medical Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at GW since
1991. A prolific author on the history of medical science
and policy, Schaffner holds a medical degree from the University
of Pittsburgh and a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University.
He has been awarded numerous research fellowships, including
a Guggenheim and a fellowship from the Institute for Human
Values in Medicine. Schaffner is a fellow of the Hastings
Center and the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. He is an associate editor of Philosophy, Psychiatry,
and Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of
five other scholarly journals.
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