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Revolutions
"If you ever do anything on Martin
Seligman, I want to write it."
That was the second thing -- after "Congratulations"
-- that Rob Hirtz, C'80, who wrote our cover story on the
Penn psychology professor and author, said to me after learning
that I'd become editor of the Gazette.
With most potential subjects, Rob (who, I should note,
was my roommate at Penn and remains a friend) would have had a longer
wait. The Gazette had already published a profile of Seligman
back in 1994, and, even among Penn's highest-achievers, it's rare that
that much happens in the space of a few years. But Seligman
has been extraordinarily active -- especially during 1998, when, as president
of the American Psychological Association, he undertook several major
initiatives. Perhaps the most ambitious of these was his push to redirect
the field from its near-exclusive focus on treating mental illness toward
the promotion of mental health. Then again, there was his call to investigate
the causes of -- and possibly ways to intervene in -- ethnopolitical warfare.
In the article, Rob describes these and other efforts, and also recounts
some choice anecdotes -- like the one about Seligman's near-death experience
with a certain dinosaur-book author and Steven Spielberg-collaborator.
Also in this issue, we recognize the 25th anniversary
of Penn's women's studies program with coverage of a conference put on
to mark the occasion. The conference, which featured panelists drawn mostly
from Penn's faculty and graduate students, was designed to showcase the
wide range of work -- from literary criticism to welfare policy -- being
done under the rubric of "women's studies," according to Dr.
Demie Kurz, the associate professor of sociology who co-directs the program
and helped organize the conference.
One welcome indication of how far women's studies has
progressed, Kurz noted when I spoke to her a few days later, came when
she was interviewed by a local newspaper reporter. Bracing herself to
defend the necessity of women's studies, she instead found
herself answering straightforward questions about the conference, Penn's
program, and so on. But if the question of whether or not the field deserves
to exist has been settled (at least in some quarters), who "owns"
it, what areas it encompasses, even what it should be called, remain open
to lively, occasionally acrimonious, debate -- as can be seen in our story.
Last issue's article on disgraced journalist Stephen
Glass, C'94, (see "Letters"
for some reader responses) touched on campus conflicts over the "water
buffalo" incident and free speech. Penn's battles in the "PC
wars" are also revisited in a new book co-authored by history professor
Dr. Alan Charles Kors, which includes a harsh indictment of former Penn
president -- and current history professor -- Dr. Sheldon Hackney, Hon'93.
In our student column, Michael Brus, C'99, who interviewed
both men, considers how "two decent, generous, and (largely) honest
intellectuals became such ideological and personal foes."
Finally, in "Gazetteer,"
a reminder that even people of normally divergent views can come together
in a common cause: The featured speaker at this year's Steinberg Symposium
was Dr. John J. DiIulio, Jr., C/G'80, the controversial
political scientist whose coining of the term super-predator drew
accusations of racism. More recently, DiIulio has become a leading proponent
of faith-based programs to help inner-city youth. One African American
minister had a forthright answer for those who criticized his working
with DiIulio: "Listen: when I needed someone to help me find a place
of refuge, it was John DiIulio. And if I wanted to be part of the solution,
then I need to be in a relationship with him. And so if you have a problem
with political correctness, you need to leave that at the boardrooms or
go to your nice tea."
-- John Prendergast, C'80
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Pennsylvania Gazette | Last modified 1/6/99