Dr. Andrew Delbanco wears two hats. He’s the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University, where he teaches history and literature. And he’s the newest president of the Teagle Foundation, which gives out grants to further liberal arts education.
For Delbanco, his role as a historian and his work at the foundation largely go hand in hand. In both positions, his goal is to engage students in the humanities, which helps them “know about the past as well as the moment in which they live,” he said.
Delbanco came to the Teagle Foundation presidency last year with many accolades. In 2001, Time named him “America’s Best Social Critic,” and he earned a Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates in 2006. In 2012, President Barack Obama gave him the National Humanities Medal. Meanwhile, he served on the Teagle Foundation Board of Directors starting in 2009. A prolific writer, Delbanco has published a wide range of books, including a volume on higher education called College: What It Was, Is, And Should Be.
His most recent work is The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War. The book, published last year, describes the journeys of fugitive slaves as well as the ethical debates surrounding the enforcement of the U.S. Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Act.
Studying this kind of history sheds light on modern day issues, Delbanco noted, ranging from reparations to voter suppression to affirmative action.
“Understanding the past is important for behaving responsibly in the present,” he said. “Working on The War Before the War made me see more clearly than I had understood before that American history is a totally different matter for Black people than it is for White people. Writing this book was an act of self-education.”
While the Teagle Foundation doesn’t exclusively focus on students of color or low-income students, Delbanco’s work aims to ensure humanities education is available to all, not just students from privileged backgrounds or selective institutions.
