Dear Members of the TC Community,
I’m delighted to announce the appointment of Hervé Varenne, Chair of the Department of International and Transcultural Studies, as Teachers College’s new Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education.
Professor Varenne, who joined TC’s faculty in 1972, is a brilliant scholar who has helped define the field of education anthropology and launch the careers of many TC students. A past recipient of the Council on Anthropology and Education’s prestigious George and Louise Spindler lifetime achievement award, he has published seven books and scores of journal articles, ranging from an exploration of the structured diversity in a small Midwest town – work that earned him comparisons to Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century French diplomat and observer of American life, for his “insights into American culture as expressed through the actions of ordinary people” – to topics that include family dynamics, suburban high school education, global humanity and technology. Yet throughout his career, he has maintained a focus on the agency of learners, the importance of education that occurs in informal settings outside the classroom, the power of self-determination, and anthropology as an applied discipline.
Along with luminaries such Margaret Mead, Lambros Comitas and George Bond, Varenne helped establish the College as perhaps the leading program in education anthropology. He is also known as a generous colleague and mentor who frequently collaborates with fellow faculty members and co-publishes with his students.
The Cowles Chair, established in 1983, is named for Gardner Cowles Jr., an American journalist, publisher, and philanthropist, and a devoted Trustee of Teachers College for more than 25 years prior to his death in 1985. The chair was last held by renowned TC anthropologist Lambros Comitas, who passed away in 2020.
Please join me in congratulating Professor Varenne on his much-deserved appointment as the Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education. You can read more about Professor Varenne’s work here.
Stephanie J. Rowley
Provost, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs