This single episode of mortification (because trust me, there have been many more) is a gross exaggeration of my deficient public speaking skills, but the account reveals my dwindling confidence around Dartmouth's brilliant faculty members. From a classics professor my freshman year who employed an astonishing range of idiosyncratic, often incomprehensible lexicon, to my current English professor who never ceases to amaze me with his extremely insightful lectures, I have felt entirely overwhelmed by professors' prowess in their respective fields.
So one can envision how pleasantly surprised I was at hearing from professors that their students' input in class frequently provides fodder for their books and research. I have begun to entertain, and perhaps even believe, the idea that no matter how idiotic a student's comment or question sounds, it may become food for thought in the mysterious minds of professors.
Native American studies professor Bruce Duthu said his book, "Shadow Nations: Tribal Sovereignty and the Limits of Legal Pluralism," uses the conceptual framework of legal pluralism, in which multiple systems coexist in a territory, to advocate for a more "robust" form of tribal sovereignty for Native Americans. Duthu spoke about his frustration with the constraints of traditional federal laws, which tend to constrict rather than protect tribal rights.
Two students helped Duthu with his research for "Shadow Nations" after taking his "Native Americans and the Law" course. Using undergraduates for research largely depends on the nature of the faculty member's work in his case, the pool of research assistants was somewhat limited since Dartmouth does not have a law school and undergraduates usually do not possess specialized legal knowledge. Teaching undergraduates nonetheless constitutes a unique "source of enlightenment," Duthu said. Juggling undergraduate teaching and his own research comes more easily because he truly enjoys teaching.
"I don't think any of us would be here if we didn't love the classroom," Duthu said. "For me, the classroom is a great opportunity to bring new ideas and have my students critique them."
Working with undergraduates prompts him to carefully inspect his legal concepts and arguments to ensure that they are understandable to the non-specialist audience.
Eric Schildge '10, one of the two students who worked as Duthu's research assistants, said he focused on preliminary research to explore diverse theoretical and practical implications of legal pluralism for native peoples.
"One of the best things about Dartmouth is how professors are so willing to involve their undergraduate students in their research," he said. "That is probably less common at larger universities that have established graduate programs in these disciplines."
Computer science professor Thomas Cormen said his newly published work, "Algorithms Unlocked," attempts to make the subject of algorithms as accessible as possible to those without a computer science background. A student suggested three titles, one of which Cormen ultimately used.
He reflected positively on his previous experience of hiring undergraduates as research assistants. While composing the second edition of his widely used textbook, "Introduction to Algorithms," he hired two students to help him update the instructor's manual during their off-terms. The students did such a great job that he decided to list them as coauthors of the manual.
Economics and public policy professor Charles Wheelan said the two books that he published this year, "Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data" and "The Centrist Manifesto," have completely different orientations.
While "Naked Statistics" is in the same vein with his previous book, "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science," because both works seek to reach a wide audience of laypeople by transforming complex topics into understandable material.
By contrast, "The Centrist Manifesto," borne out of his policy experiences, calls for a third moderate political party, which would adopt the best policies and platforms from Democrats and Republicans and subsequently integrate fiscal responsibility, environmental responsibility, social tolerance and commitment to economic opportunity.
"A lot of people describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal," Wheelan said. "Neither party delivers that."
Because he has only been teaching at Dartmouth full-time for a year, Wheelan did not have any students assist him with research for the books. He plans to hire undergraduates as research assistants, as he has already done with his upcoming book on monetary policy.
He added that his books often originate from issues that he explores while teaching.
"I find that everything I do in the classroom circles back to the kinds of books that I write," he said. "To me, it's all a seamless continuum."
Biology professor Ryan Calsbeek co-edited "The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology" to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the theory of adaptive landscapes by influential geneticist Sewall Wright.
The edited volume contains chapters written by a group of scientists on the ways in which populations of all living things evolve to adapt to their natural environments.
Because his laboratory continually studies evolutionary biology, all the undergraduates working in his lab have in some ways contributed indirectly to his book. He added that teaching prompts him to stay up to date with the most recent research and findings in the scientific community, including recent works by his colleagues.
"That's why being an active scientist is so important to being a capable teacher," he said. "One really informs the other."
