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AROUND THE QUADS5 Minutes With … Christia Mercer
Philosophy Professor Christia Mercer has been teaching at Columbia since 1991. She currently is serving a five-year term holding the Gustave M. Berne Professorship in the Core Curriculum. Mercer earned her B.A. in art history from Brooklyn College before studying philosophy, earning M.A.s at Rutgers and Princeton, followed by a Ph.D. at Princeton. CCT caught up with her to find out more. Q: Where are you from? A: Fort Worth, Texas. And I did graduate studies in Germany and Italy. I once was called an academic gypsy by a professor. I don’t think he meant it as a compliment, but I took it that way! Q: Did you teach anywhere before Columbia? A: I taught at the University of California at Irvine for a couple of years. Q: Was it an adjustment to come to Columbia and NYC after working there? A: I was happy to come to New York. State universities are different — there, I never graded undergraduate papers because I had TAs. Here, I love the Core. Q: What led you from art history to early modern German philosophy? A: I wanted to study art history in Italy, so I got a job teaching art history in Rome. Teaching intellectual history led me to start reading philosophy, and I had this “Eureka!” moment when I realized what I really had been interested in all this time was the intellectual background of paintings, and it led me into philosophy in general, though I really enjoy teaching art humanities. Q: What is your favorite class to teach at CC? A: I think it’s a draw between “History of Philosophy” and “Philosophy and Feminism,” a course I designed. I like it because it’s different from intellectual history and it’s stuff that matters to me. Q: What’s new in the philosophy department? A: For the past few years, we’ve continued to hire and promote great philosophers, and we’ve moved up the rankings and now are a top philosophy department. When I arrived, it was a rather sickly program; the number of undergraduate majors has tripled since then. I’m most proud of our students, who are great. Philosophy is hard, and they are clever and imaginative. It is fun to teach them. Q: Could you describe the books you’re working on? A: Divine Madness is about methodology and philosophy in 17th century German philosophy, which in my research on Leibnitz I discovered is more interesting and varied than only Leibnitz. Material Difficulties: Matter, Explanation, and Mind in Early Modern Philosophy is about the metaphysical and scientific problems that face 17th century physics theories. I’ve also been asked to write the introduction to Leibnitz’s philosophy. I haven’t decided what to work on first. Q: Where do you live? A: I just moved into a Columbia apartment on Central Park West. Q: Do you have any pets? A: Nope, just my children — two boys, 10 and 14. Q: What is the last movie you saw? A: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Q: Coffee or tea? A: Definitely double espresso. Q: What is your favorite place in the world? A: There are a couple of ancient churches in Rome … San Clemente is my favorite. Q: If you were not teaching at CC, what would you most likely be doing? A: I’d be a tour guide in central Italy. Interview and photo:
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