The secret lives of our profs
Associate Professor of Classics Randall McNeill
Lauren Mimms
Issue date: 5/15/09 Section: Features
Randall McNeill, associate professor and chair of the classics department, is finishing up his 10th year at Lawrence. He was honored with Lawrence's Young Teacher Award in 2003. Following this term, McNeill will be on sabbatical for a year to work on a book project as part of the Defining Wisdom grant he received earlier this year.
McNeill primarily grew up in Chicago, so he is familiar with the Midwest. His father, also an academic, spent a year at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar. Moving to Europe for a year left quite an impression on the 13-year-old McNeill.
"Being in the Netherlands meant that when I had breaks from school, we could just hop in the car and go somewhere in Europe. I think it was one of our first trips, to Northern Italy, which inspired my interest in classics," he recalled.
McNeill attended Harvard University for his undergraduate degree. "At Harvard, instead of dorms, we lived in houses that each had a different reputation," he said, admitting that he chose the stereotypically "nerdy" house, Lowell, one of the 12 undergraduate residence halls on campus.
After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, McNeill earned his doctorate from Yale University, where he lectured for a year before coming to Lawrence. Said McNeill, "At Lawrence, I could teach about wider interests, while at large universities, I would be hired to teach one specific subject, like Roman satire."
McNeill is very enthusiastic about his decision to come to Lawrence, expressing how much he enjoys teaching LU students. "I am endlessly impressed by what students here do. It's really exciting to watch students find new subjects they really enjoy and to be involved in helping move them forward. Students here are also very hardworking and seem to be generally excited about learning," he said.
Professor McNeill will be working on two projects with the Defining Wisdom grant while on sabbatical next year. The Defining Wisdom project aims at coming to conclusions about "the big questions," like "what is wisdom?" and "what is justice?" Professor McNeill is "excited to have conversations with other people outside [his] own discipline about their views on these topics. He will be traveling to various universities over the next year to contribute to his research and meet with other professors in the program.
McNeill primarily grew up in Chicago, so he is familiar with the Midwest. His father, also an academic, spent a year at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar. Moving to Europe for a year left quite an impression on the 13-year-old McNeill.
"Being in the Netherlands meant that when I had breaks from school, we could just hop in the car and go somewhere in Europe. I think it was one of our first trips, to Northern Italy, which inspired my interest in classics," he recalled.
McNeill attended Harvard University for his undergraduate degree. "At Harvard, instead of dorms, we lived in houses that each had a different reputation," he said, admitting that he chose the stereotypically "nerdy" house, Lowell, one of the 12 undergraduate residence halls on campus.
After graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, McNeill earned his doctorate from Yale University, where he lectured for a year before coming to Lawrence. Said McNeill, "At Lawrence, I could teach about wider interests, while at large universities, I would be hired to teach one specific subject, like Roman satire."
McNeill is very enthusiastic about his decision to come to Lawrence, expressing how much he enjoys teaching LU students. "I am endlessly impressed by what students here do. It's really exciting to watch students find new subjects they really enjoy and to be involved in helping move them forward. Students here are also very hardworking and seem to be generally excited about learning," he said.
Professor McNeill will be working on two projects with the Defining Wisdom grant while on sabbatical next year. The Defining Wisdom project aims at coming to conclusions about "the big questions," like "what is wisdom?" and "what is justice?" Professor McNeill is "excited to have conversations with other people outside [his] own discipline about their views on these topics. He will be traveling to various universities over the next year to contribute to his research and meet with other professors in the program.
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