2008 Woodie Awards
From Arch Conservative to Bleeding Liberal
Professor Evan Resnick
Aryeh Schneider
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: Features
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Mesmerized by the intensity and magnitude of the moment, a young Evan Resnick sat glued to his home television and watched as the United States bombed Libya and the home of Moammar Kadafi in Tripoli. It was "scary and exciting and thrilling and fascinating," said Resnick, recalling this defining moment from his childhood. "I think that was the first political moment I ever had."
Now, nearly twenty years later, the soon to be Dr. Resnick has joined Yeshiva College in a tenure track line to teach the subject he had fallen in love with growing up. In just three years, Professor Resnick is up for review, after which he may stay on for another three years before the university determines whether or not tenure should be granted.
For now though, Prof. Resnick is taking it one step at a time. "These last few years my line of vision has been: 'what am I going to be doing next September-what am I going to be doing next September'? It's nice to have three Septembers where I know what I'm going to be doing...Fewer panic attacks," said Prof. Resnick.
Currently, Professor Resnick is more than occupied working to complete his dissertation after four years of writing the "five hundred page monster," and will earn his PhD from Columbia University.
His primary focus, however, is preparing lectures and lesson-plans for his Yeshiva courses. Resnick says he hopes to offer them an educational experience remedied of some of the faults and failures he encountered as both a student and a teacher in other institutions.
In 1996, Prof. Resnick graduated from York University in Toronto. There, politics was the salient division among both students and faculty. He describes the institution as exceptionally liberal, far beyond even that of Columbia, where he would later continue his education. "If you were a Socialist but not a revolutionary Marxist you were considered a real right-winger," said Prof. Resnick.
In graduate school at Columbia, Resnick describes the debate shifting away from politics, which was placed in the background, and over to the more theoretical realm-a debate of ideas. "Are you a realist or are you a liberal institutionalist...it becomes all about which theories do you most closely associate yourself with."
Now, nearly twenty years later, the soon to be Dr. Resnick has joined Yeshiva College in a tenure track line to teach the subject he had fallen in love with growing up. In just three years, Professor Resnick is up for review, after which he may stay on for another three years before the university determines whether or not tenure should be granted.
For now though, Prof. Resnick is taking it one step at a time. "These last few years my line of vision has been: 'what am I going to be doing next September-what am I going to be doing next September'? It's nice to have three Septembers where I know what I'm going to be doing...Fewer panic attacks," said Prof. Resnick.
Currently, Professor Resnick is more than occupied working to complete his dissertation after four years of writing the "five hundred page monster," and will earn his PhD from Columbia University.
His primary focus, however, is preparing lectures and lesson-plans for his Yeshiva courses. Resnick says he hopes to offer them an educational experience remedied of some of the faults and failures he encountered as both a student and a teacher in other institutions.
In 1996, Prof. Resnick graduated from York University in Toronto. There, politics was the salient division among both students and faculty. He describes the institution as exceptionally liberal, far beyond even that of Columbia, where he would later continue his education. "If you were a Socialist but not a revolutionary Marxist you were considered a real right-winger," said Prof. Resnick.
In graduate school at Columbia, Resnick describes the debate shifting away from politics, which was placed in the background, and over to the more theoretical realm-a debate of ideas. "Are you a realist or are you a liberal institutionalist...it becomes all about which theories do you most closely associate yourself with."