Engendering Hope – My Advising Outlook

The overarching conceptual goals in my advising, teaching, research, and service activities are revealed by a single question: What is the purpose of knowledge? My response is that the purpose of knowledge is to engender a sense of hope through understanding of our habitat and its complex relationships.

Based on rigorous use of the intellect, hope is really about achieving a sense of confidence for the future. The intellect is the capacity not only to reason, but also to imagine and empathize. The root of the word “intellect” lies in the ability of the mind to not only reflect, but also place oneself in the position of the “Other”.

Hope, in this sense, is a methodological undertaking because it is about practice that is reflected in actions such as applied research. Moreover, it is also a pedagogical activity because it is related to the skills of critical thinking and thoughtfulness that are transmitted through teaching. In the context of mentoring and advising, hope informs, is imbued with, and arises out of the research and teaching process. Because this process is rigorous, hope results from the co-creation of knowledge; it is emergent, indeterminate, and open-ended. It is about possibilities. This aesthetic is central to my advising, teaching, research, and service activities.

For me service is a key component of answering the question: what is the purpose of knowledge? With the use of this word, I mean service to communities, civil society, and governmental institutions to achieve the common good. As naïve as this objective may seem in the hypercritical and cynical environment, this is precisely what I mean by the word “service”.

Engaging Students

My mentoring and advising extend to a diverse group of students. My expectation is competence, commitment to hard work, and honesty. Within my research group, you will find students who span the spectrum of ethnicity, ideology, religions, and sexual orientations. Human beings have multiple identities that give them insight. I welcome these differences as our research broadly speaks to the connection between biological and cultural diversity. In my career, I have had students living with schizophrenia and Asperger’s syndrome. These are not weaknesses to me, but opportunities to gain and share insights. I also mentor and advise indigenous students from the villages and towns where I undertake research. We, as a research group, benefit from the insights of students with various perspectives determined by their life experience and intellectual outlook. Students of a specific orientation or ethnicity, or diagnosed with a particular syndrome, are a benefit to our research group, because they see what we do not and, in turn, we show them what they do not perceive. Therefore, in our research group we come to respect differences and one another. 

I believe direct engagement is more fruitful than blanket generalizations about diverse human communities. Pluralism and diversity require listening to the legitimate grievances of everyone, including those who make us uncomfortable. In the first meetings with my advisees, I promise them that they will always be safe with me, but they should not seek comfort. In my experience, comfort leads to apathy, indifference, and complacency. Therefore, our engagement will be guided by precisely those questions and concerns that make us uncomfortable, and thus demand a rigorous discipline of reflection and action.

I am very discerning about the students that I will accept to advise.  I have very high expectations of my students as they do for me because we are primarily working with communities that are vulnerable. I prefer students from working class families who have been employed to support themselves or who have engaged in substantive volunteer work with measurable consequences. 

Mentoring and advising undergraduate and graduate students involves (1) ensuring that students are on track with their degree programs and committed to excellence and self-fulfillment; (2) engaging students to reflect on broader issues of their field and to making a contribution to society at large through applied research and service, and (3) planning for the next step in their studies or career after Cornell.

When I am assigned an undergraduate student advisee, or when a prospective graduate student meets with me for the first time, I generally ask three questions:

• What do you want to achieve?
• Why do you want to achieve it? and
• How are you going to achieve it?

These questions help students to articulate their vision for the future and express their hopes through a rigorous process. The “what” is articulation of a vision. The “why” justifies that vision in an ethical framework with practical consequences. The “how” is the beginning of a methodological and pedagogical journey. Since this is a dynamic process, informed by life and educational experiences, we revisit these questions several times, iteratively building the edifice of their scholarship. Towards the end of their studies, I do not have to initiate the process of self-reflection among the students; they have been continuously engaging in self-reflection while using me as a sounding board. Often this engagement continues even after the students have graduated from Cornell because they call to discuss work issues and career choices.

If you are a prospective undergraduate or graduate student, please visit our university website for more information on the program that you are keen on exploring. If you are an existing student or a prospective graduate student, please contact me via the contact form below with a short description of your research interests and your professional goals.