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| Affiliation | Nonpartisan |
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2023-02-28 |
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| Name | Amy Gutmann |
| Address |
, Pennsylvania , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 19, 1949
(74 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Jan 27, 2024 11:30pm |
| Tags |
Jewish -
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| Info | Amy Gutmann (born November 19, 1949) is the 8th President of the University of Pennsylvania and the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Communications, and Philosophy. She is a political theorist who taught at Princeton University from 1976 to 2004 and served as its Provost.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents Kurt and Beatrice Gutmann, Amy Gutmann was raised in Monroe, New York. Her father had fled Nazi Germany in 1934 as a college student and brought his entire family – including four siblings—to join him first in Bombay, India, and in the United States after World War II. She is married to Michael Doyle, a Professor of Law and International Affairs at Columbia University. They have one daughter, Abigail, who is a Ph.D. student in chemistry at Harvard and was recently hired as an assistant professor of chemistry at Princeton University.
Gutmann graduated as class valedictorian from Monroe-Woodbury High School, before entering Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1967 with sophomore standing on a scholarship. She received a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Radcliffe College in 1971, a M.Sc. in Political Science from the London School of Economics in 1972, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard in 1976.
Through her writings, Gutmann has consistently sought to bridge theory and policy to advance the core values of a civil democratic society: liberty, opportunity and mutual respect. Her first major contribution to political philosophy was her book Democratic Education (1987; revised 1999). The book addresses the central questions in the political theory of education: How should a democratic society make decisions about education? What should children be taught? How should citizens be educated?
The book also takes on some contemporary scholarly debates: What is the appropriate response of democratic education to the challenge of multiculturalism? Should schools try to cultivate patriotic or cosmopolitan sentiments among students?
Gutmann’s second major contribution to political philosophy is a theory of deliberative democracy that she developed in collaboration with Harvard political scientist Dennis Thompson. Democracy and Disagreement (1996) calls for more reasoned argument in everyday politics. Deliberation can inform decision making through reasoned argument, and develop society’s collective capacity to pursue justice while finding mutually acceptable terms of social cooperation – even when disagreements persist.
Democracy and Disagreement has been both praised as an effective remedy for polarized politics and criticized as impractical. A collection of pro and con essays was published in Deliberative Politics, edited by Stephen Macedo.
Gutmann’s third major contribution to political philosophy is her analysis of group identity and its intersection with justice. In Identity in Democracy (2003), Gutmann argues that identity groups as such are neither friends nor enemies of democratic justice. She analyzes the legitimate but also problematic parts played by group identity in democratic politics and draws distinctions among the good, the bad, and the ugly of identity group politics.
In her inaugural address, she launched the Penn Compact, her vision for making Penn both a global leader in teaching, research, and professional practice, and a dynamic agent of social, economic, and civic progress. The Compact articulates three central strategic goals: increasing access for the very best students of all backgrounds, regardless of economic means; recruiting and retaining the very best faculty members, who will integrate knowledge across multiple disciplines; and magnifying Penn’s intellectual and institutional impact throughout the Philadelphia region, the United States, and the world.
Since arriving at Penn, she has spearheaded a major campus development plan, Penn Connects, that includes 24 acres (97,000 m2) that Penn purchased from the U.S. Postal Service along the Schuylkill River. Penn Connects is designed to boost the economic, educational and social capacity of Philadelphia and to create seamless gateways between West Philadelphia and Center City across the Schuylkill River.
Gutmann has been a leading national advocate for financial aid based on need to promote socioeconomic diversity in higher education. Gutmann made Penn one of the handful of universities in the country that substitute grants for loans for students from economically disadvantaged families. In September 2009, for the first time in Penn’s history, all undergraduates who are eligible for financial aid will receive grants rather than loans in their aid packages. Students from typical families with income less than $40,000 will pay no tuition, fees, room or board. Students from typical families with incomes less than $90,000 will pay no tuition and fees. Ten percent of the students in Penn’s incoming class of 2013 are the first in their families to attend college.
Gutmann serves on the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Corporation and the Vanguard Corporation. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. From 2005 to 2009, Gutmann served on the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, a committee that advises the FBI on national security issues relating to academia.
In November 2009, Barack Obama appointed Gutmann as Chair of a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Gutmann is also member of the Asia Society’s Task Force on U.S. policy toward India and the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), which convenes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In addition, Gutmann is among the leaders of a select group of presidents of research universities throughout the world who advise the U.N. Secretary General on a range of global issues, including academic freedom, mass migration, international development, and the social responsibilities of universities.
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