Three NYU Faculty Named ‘Top 100 Public Intellectuals’

By James Devitt

Three NYU faculty have been named to Foreign Policy magazine’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” list in its May/June 2008 issue. Those on the list are William Easterly, a professor in the Department of Economics; historian Tony Judt, who directs NYU’s Remarque Institute; and economist Nouriel Roubini, a professor in the Stern School of Business.

      The selection process for the list required that candidates must be living and still active in public life, and must have shown distinction in their particular field as well as an ability to influence wider debate, often far beyond the borders of their own country. Others selected include Pope Benedict XVI; chess master and democracy activist Garry Kasparov; General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq; and journalist Samantha Power. Foreign Policy is published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

      Easterly, who also has an appointment with NYU’s Africa House, is the author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006). In it, he argues that Western aid plans have failed and will continue to do so because they are far too removed and detached from the situations of poverty they are attempting to improve. Easterly, who served as a research economist at the World Bank for 16 years, contends that local methods are much more successful against poverty.

      Judt is a University Professor at NYU, a rank conferred upon faculty whose scholarship extends across traditional disciplinary boundaries and who are internationally recognized scholars and teachers. Judt’s research interests include French social history in the 19th and 20th centuries and French and European intellectual and political history since World War II. Judt is the author or editor of 12 books, including Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005), which the New York Times named as one of the “10 Best Books of 2005.”

      Roubini received acclaim for his bearish forecast for the U.S. and world economies and for predicting the sub-prime crisis well in advance of many economists. His published works include Bailouts or Bail-ins?: Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Economies (2004) and Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy (1997), both co-authored volumes. During the Clinton administration, Roubini served as senior economist for international affairs on the White House Council of Economic Advisors, senior advisor to the under secretary for international affairs, and the director of the Office of Policy Development and Review at the U.S. Treasury Department.

 

William Easterly    

Tony Judt                                           

Nouriel Roubini