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AROUND THE QUADS

5 Minutes With ... ANDREW NATHAN

Andrew Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science and chair of the political science department, has taught at Columbia since 1971. Born at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Nathan earned his B.A. in history, M.A. in East Asian regional studies and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard before returning to Columbia.

CCT caught up with him between classes to find out more.

Q: What classes are you teaching this semester?

A: “Chinese Foreign Policy” — about half of the 80 students are undergraduates and half are from SIPA. I also have two others: “Colloquium on Human Rights” and “Rethinking Human Rights.”

Q: You’re teaching three classes and you’re chair?

A: Both of the human rights courses are jointly taught. The normal load for a chair is one each semester. I’m teaching the others for the fun of it and the intellectual excitement.

Q: What is your favorite class to teach at CC?

A: Unfortunately, I am not teaching it while I’m chair, but my favorite is “Contemporary Civilization.” Getting 20 19-year-olds from feeling uncomfortable to discussing great books, I come out energized.

Q: You spoke about the rise of China and American foreign policy challenges at College Day in San Francisco and Los Angeles. How does speaking to alumni compare with teaching students?

A: With students you have the whole semester; with alumni you have one shot. And with alumni being out in the world, they have a lot of questions about current issues and concerns.

Q: What is your current research focus?

A: I’m involved in a multi-national survey project, “The Asian Barometer,” studying political culture and political participation in Asian societies. The study focuses on new democracies and public opinion on democracy in those countries, such as South Korea, with a broad Asian spectrum to compare. Rich and poor, democracies and not, new and old democracies … a lot of different comparisons within countries and among all the people. In 2002, we did eight countries — about 12,000 people. We’re trying for funding for 17 countries in 2005. The head office is in Taiwan and internal interview teams do the surveys.

Q: Do you travel to Asia frequently?

A: I don’t travel that much because I’m banned from China for co-editorship of The Tiananmen Papers, which translated a number of secret government documents.

Q: And you’re working on a new book?

A: I’m on the steering committee and co-editing two of three volumes documenting the 2002 survey. I also have a second edition of The Great Wall in the works.

Q: Where is your favorite place to have lunch near CC?

A: Faculty House, because I love a buffet and the view is good.

Q: What is the last movie you saw?

A: Garfield. We rented it, and my children [Oliver (6) and Isabel (3)] loved it. We have watched it innumerable times.

Q: What is your favorite place in the world?

A: My favorite places to travel would be India and Italy. India is an unbelievably heterogeneous culture very different from ours, and Italy for the food, friendliness and all the good things of Western Civilization at its peak.

Q: If you were not teaching at CC, what would you most likely be doing?

A: I’ve often though I would have enjoyed a venture capitalist’s job, but perhaps I’m romanticizing it. Going out and searching the countryside to discover promising people — it would be an exciting way to learn about people.

Interview and photo: Laura Butchy ’04 SOA

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