thehub DYNAMIC CONVERSATION:
The Open Academy In keeping with CMC’s mission to educate students for thoughtful and productive lives and for roles in responsible leadership, CMC’s Open Academy is a critical response to the educational imperative of our time: Overcoming what divides us to solve the world’s most challenging problems. The Open Academy is rooted in three CMC Commitments that are foundational to the College’s academic experience and programs: Freedom of Expression and Open Inquiry, Diversity of Viewpoint and Experience, and Constructive Dialogue.
CMC Professors Heather Ferguson and Jon Shields are the inaugural co-directors of The Open Academy.
To learn more about The Open Academy, visit: theopenacademy.cmc.edu
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This spring, Professors Heather Ferguson and Jon Shields were tapped as the inaugural faculty codirectors of The Open Academy. “As faculty co-directors of The Open Academy, Heather and Jon are each committed and highly qualified to make powerful contributions to The Open Academy and expand its impact on our campus and nationally,” said Heather Antecol, vice president for academic affairs and the dean of the faculty. Ferguson is an associate professor of Ottoman and Middle Eastern history. Her teaching resonates with students, who honored her in 2021 with the Glenn R. Huntoon Award for Superior Teaching. Her scholarship has also been recognized, earning the 2019 Koprülu Book Prize by the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association for The Proper Order of Things: Language, Power, and Law in Ottoman Administrative Discourses, as well a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship. In addition, Ferguson has taken on leadership roles across The Claremont Colleges, including her selection as a 2018 7C Claremont Faculty Leadership fellow.
CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE
