Georgetown University honored 32 faculty members for achievements in research and teaching at the spring convocation April 7.
The convocation recognized this year’s recipient of the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers, which the university awards to a faculty member who portrays excellence in research and teaching, and platformed university community members to commemorate faculty who have worked at Georgetown for more than 20 years. David Luban, a distinguished professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, delivered the annual “Life of Learning Address,” in which a faculty member reflects on lessons from their experience in academia.
Soyica Diggs Colbert (COL ’01), interim university provost, introduced Eloise Pasachoff, a law professor who won the President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers, saying past awardees and Pasachoff represent the character faculty members should exemplify.
“By naming these Presidential Scholar-Teachers, we hold them up as models for all of us,” Colbert said at the event. “As the years have progressed, the group of awardees has come to represent a definition of what is the best at Georgetown.”
In a video played at the event, Pasachoff said Georgetown facilitates her curiosity and research opportunities.
“I can be curious at Georgetown because I know there are no limits on the kinds of questions I can ask, and there’s also no limit on the kinds of answers I might reach,” Pasachoff said in the video. “The idea that growth is the point, that’s just, that’s really rewarding.”
Luban said he credits much of his success to family and colleagues.
“As for luck, I’ve often reflected that the commitments that matter to us and the talents we’ve cultivated are never really under our control,” Luban said at the event. “They depend on accidents of birth and health, like friends and mentors and students and inspiring people we’ve met along the road.”
The convocation awarded 18 full-time faculty members gold vicennial medals, celebrating 20 years of service. Recipients included eight members of the School of Medicine, seven College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) professors, one McCourt School of Public Policy professor, one School of Health professor and one law center professor.
Silver vicennial medals also honored 13 part-time faculty across the university’s undergraduate and graduate schools, including two at the law center, three in the CAS, two at the McDonough School of Business (MSB) and one at McCourt.
Interim President Robert M. Groves, who addressed the medalists, said their efforts embody the ideals of commitment and engagement.
“You embody something special in this community,” Groves said at the event. “We honor you and recognize you for that. Most importantly, you have modeled, over the years, our values and expectations. You provide an example of academic excellence.”
“Year after year, you have welcomed into our community new members, and they go on to lead this country, this world, to a better place,” Groves added.
Luban said his time in academia encouraged him to devote the rest of his career to advocating for the rule of law worldwide.
“What comes next should be obvious: to spend whatever remains of my intellectual energy defending the rule of law which faces deadly threats in backsliding democracies the world over,” Luban said.
Luban asked his faculty members to protect each other, saying academic freedom is threatened with global democratic backsliding.
“Today, the life of learning is under the most serious attack I’ve witnessed in my half-century in academia,” Luban said. “It’s an attack against our research and our teaching. It’s an attack against our community and our mission.”
“At this convocation, I would ask you to look around at your colleagues from many disciplines with a wide range in viewpoints, and pledge that we will support each other the best we can without second-guessing or self-censoring, without turning aside in our pursuit of truth in our various disciplines,” Luban added.
