‘Because we believe in Yale’: In symposia, faculty reflect on creating and promoting knowledge

As Yale celebrated the inauguration of Maurie McInnis as its 24th president last weekend, some of its most prominent faculty members convened to reflect on the pillars of the university’s mission that continue to shape its future: the promotion and application of knowledge.

In a pair of academic symposia on Saturday, leading thinkers from a range of disciplines explored how the university has catalyzed new knowledge to improve society throughout its history, the values that inform this work, and the role of higher education in the 21st century in promoting knowledge for the betterment of society.

“We are all here because we believe in Yale, but more importantly because we believe in our motto, in the idea of ‘light and truth,’” said Megan L. Ranney, dean of the School of Public Health, who moderated the first of the two panels. “We know that, at this university, we have a really unique space — but also obligation — to engage in discussion and discovery, learning and teaching, in order to promote light and truth in the world.”

In the first discussion, Yale faculty members described both their own academic journeys and how Yale promotes knowledge through teaching and public engagement. In the second, scholars from the sciences, arts, and humanities discussed the many ways in which the knowledge generated in their labs and classrooms is already serving society or is laying the groundwork for future benefits.

Both academic symposia were held in Harkness Hall.

The work of promoting knowledge on campus and beyond, faculty members in the first conversation agreed, isn’t just part the job — it’s a moral obligation. And at Yale, there exists “an extraordinary platform” to meet that obligation, said Daniel Esty, the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy, who arrived on campus more than three decades ago after serving in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Throughout his career, Esty has sought to understand how society can create policies and systems that close political divides to address a range of threats, from water and air pollution to the existential threat of climate change. “And Yale has provided an extraordinary opportunity to pull together the strands of knowledge that are required to address these super-complicated problems in thoughtful, multi-dimensional ways,” he said.

During the conversation, faculty members alluded to the ways that their own experiences — including varied life experiences before coming to Yale — inform their work as scholars and as teachers.

Often, the process of knowledge creation begins with personal, daily experiences, said Heidi Brooks, a senior lecturer in organizational behavior in the Yale School of Management. Taking the time to examine the challenges presented in these everyday experiences — in particular, the gap between how the world is and how we would want it to be — offers an important opportunity, she said.

“If we’re willing to pay attention to life,” she said, “there’s a whole curriculum laid out for us.”

For Enrique De La Cruz, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry in Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), that lived experience is rooted in his upbringing as a first-generation Cuban-American. The lessons he learned from his parents — about the value of hard work, of navigating difficult circumstances, and of getting an education (“the one thing,” his mother told him, “that no one can take away from you”) — is something he brings to his science, and in his teaching. 

In his classroom, he said, he aims not to teach students what to think, but how to think, a skill that can be transformative regardless of the path they take. “When you acquire new knowledge from learning, you can connect dots that you’ve never seen. And this changes the entire landscape and perspective of what you do,” he said. “And with that comes a great deal of independence, comes a great deal of comfort and assurance. And on a good day, it brings a great deal of confidence.”

As a historian, said Ned Blackhawk, the Howard R. Lamar Professor of History in FAS, the past helps him shape new knowledge — indeed, even a new field of knowledge. When he was still a graduate student, the study of Native American history barely existed — and certainly not in the nation’s prominent programs.

Today, Native American historians hold faculty positions at many prominent U.S. universities. And at Yale, there is now a growing number of opportunities for graduate Native studies. What’s more, he said, the knowledge created by this growing community of scholars — from the graduate dissertations that have become articles and books to his own acclaimed volume, “The Rediscovery of America,” which won the 2023 National Book Award in nonfiction — is having an influence that he could not have anticipated. 

‘Freedom to keep trying big ideas’

From vaccine inventions to mobile neonatal respirators, from experimentation with citizens’ assemblies to innovations in playwrighting, the faculty members in the second panel discussion described the many ways in which they and their students are actively engaged in the broader world outside the university walls. And while not every attempt to address a societal challenge succeeds, one said, trying matters.

“The academic setting gives you the freedom to keep trying big ideas with no guarantees,” said Anjelica Gonzalez, a professor of biomedical engineering and the faculty director of Tsai CITY, or the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale. “What comes from what might be viewed as failure is that the next generation of students will learn from that failed experiment, from that failed idea, and iterate on that to do something better.”

Moderator Jim Levinsohn, dean of the Jackson School of Global Affairs, noted that any of the faculty members sitting on the panel might as easily work in the private sector as at a university. Why then, he asked, do they choose to do their work at Yale? 

Several common themes emerged: The value of being able to collaborate across disciplines. The feeling of being part of and engaged with a community. The rewards of teaching and learning from some of the brightest student minds in the world. And perhaps most of all, the privilege of being able to take risks. 

Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, talked about research she is currently doing on long COVID, a chronic, sometimes debilitating, condition that can occur in people who have had COVID-19.

“We decided that it was important to focus on that because of the millions who are now suffering from the disease,” she said. “But if I was at a pharma company, I don’t think I could justify doing that research. Yale allows us to take that risk.”

And the panelists discussed the important ways that the insights of students inform their work, deepening the knowledge they create and share. 

Marcus Gardley, co-chair of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, described the ways drama students are helping transform playwriting, whether through their use of technology and music or other approaches that help engage audiences. “[The students] are allowing audiences to talk back to the actors on stage,” he said. “We see a lot of writers trying to break the façade of this idea that audiences just have to sit and be quiet.”

Hélène Landemore, a professor of political science in the FAS, agreed. “It’s not just the ideas that students bring. It’s the stamina and the energy and the incredible dedication,” she said. “We get busy, we get comfortable, and they wake you up constantly… Just how much they give to everything they do is very impressive.”

‘I’m not really impressed until we’re impacting the world’

During the morning session, Ranney asked panelists to discuss how scholars can and should respond to challenges to their theories — including those that emerge from tensions between science and culture, or theory and practice — as well as fundamental paradigm shifts in how society understands knowledge and knowledge systems. 

Ultimately, Brooks said, a key factor is whether knowledge is improving society. “I’m not really impressed until we’re impacting the world,” she said.

When there are challenges to knowledge, Brooks said, it is important to accept the challenge as an invitation to become “usefully disturbed” and advance knowledge, and not become defensive or agitated. “Rather than meeting [challenges] with an advocacy and an attachment to yesterday, we might take the wisdom and knowledge of yesterday and use it to empower inquiry about tomorrow.”

For Ranney, the knowledge created by Yale scholars has its deepest impact through the students who engage with it — and take it with them into a wider community. 

“We continue to engage in free thought in pursuit of knowledge,” she said, “but also the promotion of knowledge to the external world. And that is through the work [of faculty and researchers], but even more so through the ripple effect of our next generation of students and those we touch in the promotion of knowledge … that creates the society that we want. And that is how it has always been.”