Behold My New Adjective!

Some distinguished personal news...

Photo by Erica Marsland Huynh on Unsplash

Longtime readers of Drezner’s World may be vaguely aware that, for a variety of reasons, it has been a… let’s say “challenging” year for academia. This comes on top of some structural challenges facing the ivory tower that will take some time to wrestle.

It is all too easy for those of us coping with these challenges to sour on our profession. Indeed, the shifting terrain occasionally reminds me of when my father, a successful surgeon, was approaching the end of his medical career. He loved medicine and loved surgery but would lament constantly about how everything had changed for the worse and how glad he was that he would not have to handle those changes for much longer.

I am not quite in the same position as my father. For one thing, professors do not earn nearly as much as surgeons, so I’ll be working at the academic salt mines to pay the mortgage, thank you very much. For another, as frustrating as some aspects of my day job might be, I still get a kick out of most of my job. Heck, I still like attending commencement ceremonies.

Something else I have learned — not coincidentally, from the women in my life — is to savor the good news when it comes in. Which brings me to some of that good news, courtesy of Tufts Now:

Daniel Drezner, professor of international politics at The Fletcher School, Alice Lichtenstein, Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Karen Panetta, dean of graduate education and professor of electrical and computer engineering at the School of Engineering, have been named Distinguished Professors.

The distinction is reserved for senior professors “who have made exceptional contributions to their disciplines, to their students, and to the university as teachers/scholars exemplifying the finest of Tufts' traditions,” according to the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President.

Candidates, who are recommended by school deans and endorsed by a review committee comprised of distinguished peers and emeriti faculty, also have “demonstrated societal impact and hold a significant degree of national and international recognition in their field.”

Drezner joined The Fletcher School in 2006 from the University of Chicago and was named a full professor in 2008. In addition to his teaching and research, he co-directs The Fletcher School’s Russia and Eurasia Program. 

He has held positions with Civic Education Project, the RAND Corporation, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury and received fellowships from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Council on Foreign Relations, and Harvard University. 

He is the author of seven books, including The System Worked: How the World Stopped Another Great Depression, All Politics is Global: Explaining International Regulatory Regimes, and Theories of International Politics and Zombies. He has also edited three other books, including The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence. 

He has published articles in numerous scholarly journals as well as in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico, and Foreign Affairs. A non-resident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy and the Washington Post. 

A graduate of Williams College, he earned a master’s in economics and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University. 

That’s right, readers — I’m distinguished now motherf**kers!!!!

I will now take questions from the hard-working editorial staff here at Drezner’s World:

[Congratulations!!! So does being named a Distinguished Professor at Tufts come with an endowed chair?!—ed.] Um… no.

[Is it like being named a University Professor at Harvard? Cause those sound cool!—ed.] Sorry, no again.

[Does being a Distinguished Professor at Tufts come with any financial reward?—ed.] I am afraid that is also a no.

[Any course relief or reduction of service obligations?!—ed.] Nein.

[Is there any material benefit?!—ed.] I think I get a free lunch with the Provost and President in the fall? I mean, I’m pretty sure I won’t have to pay for it.

[So… basically… you’ve been rewarded with an adjective?!—ed.] Pretty much, yeah!

[Why are you so gosh-darn happy about it?!—ed.] Well, a couple of reasons.

The first is that, crazy as it sounds, this is a meaningful honor. Tufts does not throw around the “distinguished” label lightly. Only ten professors in the entire faculty have this title. To be one of those ten is nice!

The second is that for most academics, awards and honors are rare events. That is why they matter. Even if the distinguished label is not terribly remunerative, the primary currency that academics traffic in is reputation. Mine gets a modest boost now that I can say I’m a Distinguished Professor.

Finally, this is one of those unambiguous pieces of good news during a year/decade/century when unambiguous good news has been scarce.

Now if y’all will excuse me, I have some celebrating to do!