For many, summer is a season of temporarily disconnecting from the normal routine in order to recharge and refresh for the challenges that loom ahead. Typically, that means a week or two visiting a foreign destination, unwinding at the beach, exploring mountain trails, or simply remaining at home enjoying a “stay-cation.”
The popular image of university faculty members, on the other hand, is one of…well, sloth isn’t the right word, but it gets the idea across. This is grossly incorrect. It’s true many professors are paid for only 10 months, giving them two months of the year to do what they please, and while the temptation to kick back at the shore for most of the summer is tempting, I can tell you the faculty members of the Schar School are not spending their summer months idle.
If they are not teaching summer courses—and we thank them for that; summer courses are vital to helping our students achieve their goals—they are traveling the world, representing the Schar School in particular and George Mason University at large, as they deliver papers, participate on panels, and teach global study classes.
Trevor Thrall, for instance, is teaching an undergraduate course in Switzerland, before heading to Kazakhstan to speak at a conference. Mariely López-Santana is attending an international conference in Madrid where she will present thoughts on Spanish politics. Zoltan Acs is earning frequent flyer miles with meetings in Sweden, Hungary, France, and Boston. Sita Slavov, whose research on Social Security retirement timing has gone viral, will be at a pensions conference in Paris while Louise Shelley is headed to Norway.
Michael Hunzeker and two PhD students are in Rome running a simulation they built for the NATO Defense College. Eric McGlinchey is explaining Kyrgyzstani property rights at the University of Exeter in England. Stefan Toepler will have meetings in Muenster and Berlin before delivering a paper in Basel, Switzerland. After San Francisco, Anh Pham will venture to Beijing and Scotland for conferences. Tojo Thatchenkery will be in Warsaw, Madrid, and Bangkok. Justin Gest is headed, in this order, to Singapore, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and Brussels. Alan Shark is in Venice and Ankara and Jeremy Mayer will visit England and Spain.
Our border security expert, Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, is traveling the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border by car with a journalist, a remarkable journey that will no doubt enrich her future research. You can follow her blog here. This, in addition to presenting a paper in France and delivering a keynote speech in Mexico.
Not to be outdone, Robert Deitz is delivering four lectures aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2 during a transatlantic voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.
Closer to home, Phillip Mink is headed to Boston for the Northeast Association of Pre-Law Advisors conference where he will be installed as second vice president. Andrew Light, who accompanied Ellen Laipson, Todd LaPorte, Ming Wan and I in South Korea, will go to Boulder, Colo., for a working session on solar geoengineering for the National Academies of Science. Jennifer Victor bounces from south to north for conferences at Duke University and MIT. James Olds is headed to the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. David Hart is presenting in Nashville, while Jack Goldstone will find time to attend a workshop in New York City while preparing for several seminars this fall.
Even our emeritus professors continue to wave the Schar School flag: Kingsley Haynes is venturing to deliver papers in Italy then Bangkok then France. Daniel Druckman is on a panel in San Diego and then heading to Ireland, Belgium, and Denmark, before returning stateside to a workshop at Harvard Law.
As for me, after our climate change symposium in South Korea, I delivered a lecture at Ajou University, south of Seoul. I attended meetings and lectured in Beijing and I followed that, finally, with some down time in the Gobi Desert, of all places. Even deans have to kick back on occasion.
Mark J. Rozell is dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government and the Ruth D. and John T. Hazel Chair in Public Policy.