Amy Gutmann - Biography

Amy Gutmann (born November 19, 1949) is the eighth President of the University of Pennsylvania and the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Communications, and Philosophy. She is a political theorist who taught at Princeton University from 1976 to 2004 and served as its provost.

Personal life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents Kurt and Beatrice Gutmann, Amy Gutmann was raised in Monroe, New York. Her father had fled Nazi Germany in 1934 as a college student and brought his entire family – including four siblings—to join him first in Bombay, India, and in the United States after World War II. She is married to Michael Doyle, a Professor of Law and International Affairs at Columbia University. They have one daughter, Abigail, who is a Ph.D. student in chemistry at Harvard and was recently hired as an assistant professor of chemistry at Princeton University.

Academic career

Gutmann graduated as class valedictorian from Monroe-Woodbury High School, before entering Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1967 with sophomore standing on a scholarship. She received a A.B. magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1971, a M.Sc. in Political Science from the London School of Economics in 1972, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University in 1976.

Through her writings, Gutmann has consistently sought to bridge theory and policy to advance the core values of a civil democratic society: liberty, opportunity and mutual respect. Her first major contribution to political philosophy was her book Democratic Education (1987; revised 1999). The book addresses the central questions in the political theory of education: How should a democratic society make decisions about education? What should children be taught? How should citizens be educated?

The book also takes on some contemporary scholarly debates: What is the appropriate response of democratic education to the challenge of multiculturalism? Should schools try to cultivate patriotic or cosmopolitan sentiments among students?

Gutmann’s second major contribution to political philosophy is a theory of deliberative democracy that she developed in collaboration with Harvard political scientist Dennis Thompson. Democracy and Disagreement (1996) calls for more reasoned argument in everyday politics. Deliberation can inform decision making through reasoned argument, and develop society’s collective capacity to pursue justice while finding mutually acceptable terms of social cooperation – even when disagreements persist.

Democracy and Disagreement has been both praised as an effective remedy for polarized politics and criticized as impractical. A collection of pro and con essays was published in Deliberative Politics, edited by Stephen Macedo.

Gutmann’s third major contribution to political philosophy is her analysis of group identity and its intersection with justice. In Identity in Democracy (2003), Gutmann argues that identity groups as such are neither friends nor enemies of democratic justice. She analyzes the legitimate but also problematic parts played by group identity in democratic politics and draws distinctions among the good, the bad, and the ugly of identity group politics.

Penn presidency

In her inaugural address, she launched the Penn Compact, her vision for making Penn both a global leader in teaching, research, and professional practice, and a dynamic agent of social, economic, and civic progress. The Compact articulates three central strategic goals: increasing access for the very best students of all backgrounds, regardless of economic means; recruiting and retaining the very best faculty members, who will integrate knowledge across multiple disciplines; and magnifying Penn’s intellectual and institutional impact throughout the Philadelphia region, the United States, and the world.

Since arriving at Penn, she has spearheaded a major campus development plan, Penn Connects, that includes that Penn purchased from the U.S. Postal Service along the Schuylkill River. Penn Connects is designed to boost the economic, educational and social capacity of Philadelphia and to create seamless gateways between West Philadelphia and Center City across the Schuylkill River.

Gutmann has been a leading national advocate for financial aid based on need to promote socioeconomic diversity in higher education. Gutmann made Penn one of the handful of universities in the country that substitute grants for loans for students from economically disadvantaged families. In September 2009, for the first time in Penn’s history, all undergraduates eligible for financial aid received grants rather than loans in their aid packages. Students from typical families with income less than $40,000 paid no tuition, fees, room or board. Students from typical families with incomes less than $90,000 paid no tuition and fees. Ten percent of the students in Penn's incoming class of 2013 are the first in their families to attend college.

Board and leadership positions

Gutmann serves on the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Corporation and The Vanguard Group Corporation. From 2005 to 2009, Gutmann served on the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, a committee that advises the FBI on national security issues relating to academia.

In November 2009, Barack Obama appointed Gutmann as Chair of a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Gutmann is also member of the Asia Society’s Task Force on U.S. policy toward India and the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), which convenes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In addition, Gutmann is among the leaders of a select group of presidents of research universities throughout the world who advise the U.N. Secretary General on a range of global issues, including academic freedom, mass migration, international development, and the social responsibilities of universities.

She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.

In February 2011, Gutmann was appointed to the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences established by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Selected works (ordered by date)

• Why Deliberative Democracy? with Dennis Thompson, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 2004
• Identity in Democracy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 2003 (Trad. esp.: La identidad en Democracia, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2008, ISBN 9788496859333)
• Goodness and Advice [title essay by Judith Jarvis Thomson], Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001 [editor and introduction]
• Human Rights [title essay by Michael Ignatieff], Princeton University Press, 2001 [editor and introduction]
• Democratic Disagreement (a collection of essays on Democracy and Disagreement with a response by the authors), edited by Stephen Macedo, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
  • New edition with Preface and Epilogue, 1999
• The Lives of Animals [title essay by J. M. Coetzee], Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999 [editor and introduction]
• Freedom of Association, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998 [editor and first chapter]
• Work and Welfare [title essay by Robert Solow], Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1998 [editor and introduction]
• A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law [title essay by Antonin Scalia], Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997 [editor and introduction]
• Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race, with Anthony Appiah, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996
• Democracy and Disagreement, with Dennis Thompson, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996
• Multiculturalism and The Politics of Recognition [title essay by Charles Taylor], Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992 [editor and introduction]
  • Expanded paperback edition: Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition, 1994
• Democracy and the Welfare State, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988 [editor]
• Democratic Education, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987
• Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments, with Dennis Thompson, Chicago, Ill.: Nelson-Hall, 1984
  • Third edition, 1997
  • Fourth edition 2005
• Liberal Equality, New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1980

Awards and honors

• Named one of Newsweek magazine’s “150 Women Who Shake the World,” 2011
• Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award, 2009
• Alumnae Recognition Award from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard for her outstanding contributions to liberal arts education, 2006
• Centennial Medal by Harvard University for "graduate alumni who have made exceptional contributions to society,” 2003
• Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, University of Rochester, 2005
• Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree, Wesleyan University, 2005
• Member, American Philosophical Society, 2005-
• Fellow, The Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution
• W. E. B. Du Bois Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2001-
• Fellow, National Academy of Education, 1999-
• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1997-
• Ralph J. Bunche Award of the American Political Science Association, 1997
• North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award, 1996–97
• Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America Award, 1997
• Tanner Lecturer in Human Values, Stanford University, 1994–95
• Honorary Doctor of Law Degree, Kalamazoo College, 1992

External links

• Office of the Penn President
• Biography
• The Penn Compact
• Penn Connects - A Vision for the Future
• Amy Gutmann Curriculum Vitae
• Making History: The Campaign for Penn
• Penn Expands Financial Aid Program to Eliminate Loans
• Amy Gutmann in the News