Blair to teach at Yale for three years
Former British Prime Minister set to become a New Haven fixture
Blair to teach at Yale for three years
Former British Prime Minister set to become a New Haven fixture
Friday, May 30, 2008
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair may have been treated like a celebrity when he visited campus last weekend, but to Elis, he will soon become a fixture on campus — and not just this fall.
When the University announced in March that Blair would teach a seminar in the fall semester on faith and globalization, officials suggested Blair would be on campus only for this year. But as part of a previously undisclosed agreement, Blair actually plans to teach at Yale for the next three years, his spokesman told the News this week.
In teaching his course, Blair wants to be “just another member of the teaching staff,” said Matthew Doyle, the spokesman.
“It’s something different for him,” Doyle said. “He’s looking forward to it.”
Blair’s course — to be offered through the Divinity School and School of Management — aligns with the work of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which formally launched on Friday at a ceremony in New York City. In a speech at the launch, Blair said the course fits into the first aim of his new foundation: to educate.
“The idea,” Blair said, “is to create a course which, over time, can become an enduring part of Yale's teaching; can be spun off to other universities in different parts of the globe; can stimulate original research and be a resource for those working in this field.”
The former prime minister will teach the class — to be offered each of the next three fall semesters — with Divinity School Professor Miroslav Volf. Blair is expected to attend roughly every other class meeting, Doyle said.
Officially, no other details have been released about Blair’s class, and while Yale Director of Public Affairs Helaine Klasky confirmed the three-year arrangement, she said she did not have further details.
Admission to the seminar is expected to come through a competitive process, as with the Studies in Grand Strategy program, administrators said earlier this semester. Meanwhile, the class is tentatively planned to be open to students in the graduate and professional schools as well as Yale College.
Blair, 55, served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 until last June. Following his departure from Downing Street, Blair has taken up work as an envoy to the Middle East and as a consultant to several financial companies.
The former prime minister visited the Elm City last weekend to deliver a largely apolitical Class Day address on Sunday, amid a throng of silent anti-war protesters, and watch his eldest son, Euan Blair GRD '08, graduate with a master's degree in international relations.
Comments
None 3 years, 11 months ago
I'm confused by all of the posts questioning what Blair could possibly have to offer a class. It's not as though we're talking about a mindless celebrity like Paris Hilton teaching a class based on name recognition.
Would you be concerned if a person with a PhD in political science was signed up to teach the course Blair will be teaching? Well, it seems reasonable that being British Prime Minister is an equivalent qualification. Who knows, maybe he even has a couple of honorary degrees.
(Actually, I can poke a hole in my own argument . . . because I can't imagine a parallel argument being made for Bush . . . but still, he's an anomaly.)
-Mark
None 3 years, 11 months ago
I'm struggling to see how having the former British Prime Minister teaching at your school is a bad thing. If you don't think he'll be a good teacher, don't take his class -- but it certainly improves the visibility of Yale.
None 3 years, 11 months ago
Tony won't be at Yale for three years. He'll be in New York City making big money connections so he can cash in like Daddy Bush, John Major, sadly Al Gore, and now Bill Clinton.
Yale is just convenient cover for Blair, and I hope the YDN will pay attention to where Tony actually spends his time this fall and thereafter.
None 3 years, 12 months ago
all you need is cash, cash,cash is all ya need
None 3 years, 12 months ago
well said.
None 3 years, 12 months ago
Jose A.
Go lie down by your dish.
None 3 years, 12 months ago
Yale seems to have enough money to contemplate a lot of new building. How about finding the money now to finish restoring the rest of the Divinity School ? Set up a center for Faith and public service or some such thing. There's lots of room available in the back of the Quad.
None 3 years, 12 months ago
i have watched Mr. Blair orate on C-Span for some time ,Dictate terms to the electorate in Parliament,defend his parties policies and just destroy the opposition -he was fabulous
None 3 years, 12 months ago
"What exactly is the pedagogical utility of bringing Blair to campus?"
Pedagogy has little to do with any of Yale's decisions regarding faculty and instructors. Haven't you taken a math course? Yale conditions its students; it doesn't teach them. You might argue the merit to that practice: grads capable of internalizing only carefully packaged information are far less useful to the world.
"What is he trained to teach (other than, presumably, Law)?"
He could literally read aloud his appointment books from the last ten years and it would be sufficiently educational.
"Will his courses be ... ?"
I haven't seen the syllabi. You?
"How does Blair's law degree enable him to teach questions of faith?"
Ooh, seven-degrees of Law Degree. Okay: Law degree enables legal experience enables Prime Minister post enables faculty position enables team-teaching with Miroslav Volf enables Volf to teach that part.
"What does Yale gain through these vacuous, skewed supercourses nominally taught by superstar faculty like Grand Strategy?"
Vacuous? Hardly. For one thing, Yale gets to take some of its star students, put them in the same room, and give them a basis for future interaction. That's a pretty good way to put alumni on strong footing to assume leadership positions in the world.
None 3 years, 12 months ago
He won't be here three years - his war crimes trial will take place long before that.
None 3 years, 12 months ago
What exactly is the pedagogical utility of bringing Blair to campus? What is he trained to teach (other than, presumably, Law)? Will his courses be primers in government for the ruling class of tomorrow, barely disguised celebrity worship, or actual opportunities for students to engage with critical literatures in a variety of disciplines - which is what university education is supposed to do? How does Blair's law degree enable him to teach questions of faith? What does Yale gain through these vacuous, skewed supercourses nominally taught by superstar faculty like Grand Strategy?
None 3 years, 12 months ago
Just another member of the teaching staff, huh? So what, no office space, $16k a year for a daily class? Or would that not be enough for Tony Blair?
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