Two chosen as ‘Excellent’ professors

Professors Libby Adler and Richard Strasser come from different corners of the world and different disciplines at Northeastern, but they share both the love and the mastery of teaching.

The two will lead faculty into the TD Banknorth Garden on commencement morning as the 2008 Excellence in Teaching Award winners, as chosen by students.

Here are brief interviews with the two:

 

Libby Adler is a professor of law. She holds a J.D. from Northeastern and an L.L.M. from Harvard.

Voice: Who or what steered you into teaching?

Adler: I have always had the bug. At each stage of my education I thought "I'd like to teach this." Both of my parents are retired public school teachers, so I guess it was bred into me, whether by genes or upbringing. Also, I have been taught by some phenomenal teachers whom I hoped to emulate, and some bad ones too, who made me want to do it right.

Voice: Briefly, tell us about your first experience in front of a class.

Adler: The first course I taught here was administrative law.  I was an adjunct member of the faculty at that time.  The class met two mornings each week for 90 minutes. By the end of each class I was completely exhausted and useless for the rest of the day. My head was pounding and I'd sweated through my suit. I don't think my adjunct pay covered my dry cleaning expenses that quarter. On the days in between classes I spent every minute preparing, wanting to know every thing I could about the topic, the time period for each case, and so on. I was terrified of not knowing something.

Voice: If you weren't teaching, what would you be doing?

Adler: I'm a lawyer. I'd be practicing law, probably something in the field of child welfare. My partner represents kids in foster care, which is what I expected to do after law school, though I ended up drafting regulations and policy memoranda instead.  

Voice: What's the last book or movie you recommend?

Adler: Right now I'm slowly making my way through a book called “Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay, and Coming of Age in the Streets of New York” by Kai Wright. It was sent to me by a prospective law student who works as an editor at the Beacon Press. The book tells the stories of three young men and how their sexual and political identities evolve under difficult material and social conditions. This topic is closely related to my work-in-progress, which advocates attention to how low-profile laws governing matters such as child support, foster care, emancipation, employment, zoning and so on produce sexual identities and practices. The idea is that constitutional rights and equality are legal approaches that only get any group so far, and in my view, the gay rights movement's focus on them has obscured law reform possibilities that are less glorious but ultimately more important to the immediate lives of people who are suffering.

Voice: Whom would you hire to play you in the film version of your life?

Adler: I have no idea how to answer this one.

 

 

Richard Strasser is an assistant professor of music industry. He holds a bachelor’s and a graduate diploma in music from the Canberra School of Music.

Voice: Who or what steered you into teaching?

Strasser: Rather than being steered into teaching, I realized at a young age that sheet music and strings were expensive and that teaching guitar lessons could actually pay for these things.

Voice: Do you have a philosophy or principles guiding your teaching?

Strasser: Plutarch once said, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." To me teaching is about inspiring and empowering future music leaders.

Voice: Briefly, talk about your first experience in front of a class.

Strasser: My first experience teaching in front of a class occurred in Rome, Italy. I was teaching a class about Neapolitan opera and a performance at the palace of the prince of Chiusiano. At once a student raised his hand and said that he was a good friend of that family and we should go to the palace for classes. I soon realized that teaching this course was not about exploring a musical heritage, but a way for students to find out about their relatives.

Voice: If you weren't teaching, what would you be doing?

Strasser: Performing on the guitar

Voice: What's the last book or movie you recommended?

Strasser: I recommended to two exceptional students Jim Collins' "Good to Great and the Social Sectors" to inspire them in their new business.

Voice: Whom would you hire to play you in the film version of your life?

Strasser: Geoffrey Rush. He has a talent at playing mad Australian musicians.