Barack Obama has at least once, uttered the sentence "I was a constitutional law professor." This has been repeated, uncritically. One of Sully's correspondents, for example. Mark Kleiman, who really ought to know better, called him a "Con. Law Prof."
As Powerline noted back in April, this is, shall we say, a bit of puffery. Obama has taught courses in constitutional law, and so in casual conversation his students might well refer to him as "Professor." But he is listed on the University of Chicago web page as "Senior Lecturer in Law." His publications page lists his two autobiographical books, but no academic work of any sort, much less any academic writings on constitutional law. Now, given his relatively strong academic credentials and the extent of affirmative action in academic hiring, if Obama had written articles about, well, pretty much anything, he would undoubtedly have been able to get hired at an elite law school in a tenure-track position. But he didn't.
Barack Obama may well know a lot more about constitutional law than the average person, or even the average lawyer. But he is not a Professor of Constitutional Law. Nor is he an assistant professor or associate professor. At most, he's an "adjunct professor," which is not the same thing at all.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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5 comments:
'Constitutional law professor' simply refers to someone who teaches constitutional law at a college level. It's a common vernacular usage.
It is not a title, in which case the words are capitalized and usually include the words "Associate" or the like depending on the country involved.
Of course it's a title. Particularly when used by an academic like Mark Kleiman.
As someone who has held both the rank of "lecturer" and "professor", I can assure you that your semantic worries are not only churlish, but misplaced. What if his rank had been less than a "Senior Lecturer," some sort of lowly Adjunct or Affiliate Professor? It is not common in academic life to provide one's rank and tenure status, only the function which one has performed. Mr Obama has indeed been a professor of Constitutional Law at the rank of Senior Lecturer. Grow up!
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/media/index.html
Semantics aside for a moment, the point is really about the 'context' of making such a direct claim towards knowledge. Is Obama an academia scholar in Constitutional Law? No, not really. Has he dedicated a great portion of his life to studying the Constitution, not really. Obama has nothing published, has never taken a case to a state or US Supreme Court where Constitutional law is all that matters. The concept of lecturer is a person with knowledge sharing their knowledge.The term Professor implies that you belong to a university, the world of academia, and usually have a doctorate degree. Again, this does not apply. So how about 'teacher'? Obama has been a teacher and lecturer of Constitutional law. Nothing more or less.
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