For University President Amy Gutmann, "Doing research is a form of secular immortality."
"It lives through you," she added during her talk at the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships yesterday afternoon.
Gutmann spoke to a roomful of students in the ARCH Building about her experiences with and thoughts on scholarly research.
She began with an "intellectual biography" that traced her personal research experience.
Since childhood, Gutmann had her heart set on being a teacher. However, her interests changed when she "got lots of satisfaction" out of the research process after she wrote a paper for her Spanish literature class in college.
Once she established her interest in research, she "fell in love with a subject" -- political philosophy.
According to Gutmann, political philosophy "was something that resonated with who I am and what I care about."
What primarily interested her were the "values of democracy. Political philosophy speaks to those values," she said.
Political philosophy also intrigued her because it stresses the "importance of education in a democracy," which meshes well with her love of teaching.
Gutmann said she feels that, once equipped with education in a democratic society, "individuals can make a difference. I found I can make one."
Gutmann added that she realized during her research that "no contemporary philosopher has written about democracy and education." That was when she decided to conduct her own research and write her book entitled Democratic Education.
With so much interest invested in research, why has Gutmann chosen a career as a university president?
"I decided I could make a bigger difference being the president of Penn," she said.
Gutmann added that she "would like there to be more of an opportunity for students to do independent research projects on problems of our time ... and more opportunities to learn skills."
After her speech, Gutmann fielded questions from the audience. When asked about her most recent research, she said that she is currently working on a series of books about the problems in higher education.
On the experience of females in the male-dominated field of research, she replied that she grew "more attuned to how important it is to overcome stereotypes."
Audience members also questioned Gutmann about researchers' salaries. She said that researchers earn enough to support themselves, and that "even some scholars get super rich ... but not me!"
Gutmann closed the talk by encouraging students to "believe in how much of a difference you can make in the world. Follow your passion, and work hard."
Wharton junior Jesse Pujji said that the talk "went very well. I'm very hopeful for the future of research" in the University.
"I'm really impressed," College sophomore Megan Peppel said. "It's a difficult step to go from the classroom to research. ... I'm excited to have a president who cares."
