Faculty

Recruited from among Skidmore’s most accomplished professors, MALS faculty serve as seminar leaders, independent study directors, and faculty advisors. Many are drawn to the program by the chance to work with students marked by a rich experience and keen seriousness. One professor recently described his independent study with a new student (whose concentration focuses on the political implications of media portrayals of Islam) as “one of my most rewarding teaching experiences at the College.”

 

He was this 50-year-old investment banker, and the questions he asked came straight out of left field—straight out of his own, particular, individual experience—out of all the things he’d learned about the world. And because those weren’t the kind of questions I was used to hearing from my undergrads, the course was a crucial experience for me as a teacher. It kept me on my toes. It made my brain nimble. That student got me outside my box.

John Anzalone, Professor of Foreign Languages & Literatures

This week was some of the best teaching I’ve ever done. We were all past our comfort zones, in a less predictable territory. Because we weren’t able to operate by habit, we had to pay sharper attention to what was in front of us.
Sarah Goodwin, Professor of English & Associate Dean of the Faculty

Something had happened so that the course wasn’t just about reading and discussing a historical document. We were thinking about who we are and who we really hope to be—as much as we were about the meaning of the words on the page. This is what these students taught me.
Beau Breslin, Assistant Professor of Government & Director, Law and Society Program