2008 Woodie Awards
Things I've Learned, with Poli Sci Professor Benjamin Ginsberg
Issue date: 10/9/08
Years ago, Professor Benjamin Ginsberg planned his future by closing his eyes and putting one of two letters - one turning down his acceptance to law school, the other turning down his acceptance to graduate school - in his mailbox.
After the graduate school and a long teaching career at Cornell, Ginsberg now teaches American politics in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and coordinates the Hopkins Atchison program in Washington, DC.
Ginsberg spoke with the News-Letter about his impromptu decision to pursue a career in the political science field and his predictions about the upcoming election's outcome.
News-Letter (N-L): What led you to pursue a career in political science?
Benjamin Ginsberg (BG): Well, it was actually totally by chance. When I was in college, like everyone else, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I didn't know what I would do working in an occupation anyway, except what I had seen on television.
I was a political science major, an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, and most of my friends planned to go on to law school, but I didn't know if I could do that.
In all these lawyer programs I had seen on television, all these people were always standing up and delivering these brilliant orations. I thought, 'Wow, I can't do that.' However, the professors sat around the library looking at musty volumes, and I thought, 'You know, I could do that.'
I applied to law school and to graduate school. This was the pre-computer era, so no one knew what you were doing. I got my acceptances, and I put down my class deposits.
I put down a deposit for both [law and graduate school]. In September my girlfriend asked me, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I don't know,' and she said, 'You have to decide.'
I typed out letters to both turning down my place and asking for my deposit back. I stood outside by the mailbox with one in each hand, I closed my eyes, and I threw one in the box, then I opened my eyes to see what I was doing. I was going to graduate school. And I said, 'OK.'
After the graduate school and a long teaching career at Cornell, Ginsberg now teaches American politics in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and coordinates the Hopkins Atchison program in Washington, DC.
Ginsberg spoke with the News-Letter about his impromptu decision to pursue a career in the political science field and his predictions about the upcoming election's outcome.
News-Letter (N-L): What led you to pursue a career in political science?
Benjamin Ginsberg (BG): Well, it was actually totally by chance. When I was in college, like everyone else, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I didn't know what I would do working in an occupation anyway, except what I had seen on television.
I was a political science major, an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, and most of my friends planned to go on to law school, but I didn't know if I could do that.
In all these lawyer programs I had seen on television, all these people were always standing up and delivering these brilliant orations. I thought, 'Wow, I can't do that.' However, the professors sat around the library looking at musty volumes, and I thought, 'You know, I could do that.'
I applied to law school and to graduate school. This was the pre-computer era, so no one knew what you were doing. I got my acceptances, and I put down my class deposits.
I put down a deposit for both [law and graduate school]. In September my girlfriend asked me, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I don't know,' and she said, 'You have to decide.'
I typed out letters to both turning down my place and asking for my deposit back. I stood outside by the mailbox with one in each hand, I closed my eyes, and I threw one in the box, then I opened my eyes to see what I was doing. I was going to graduate school. And I said, 'OK.'
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