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Home > News & Events > CLA Today Archive > Winter 2001-2002 : MEGA Historian Weitz

MEGA Historian Weitz Answers Call to U

by Jessica Breed

In history circles in 1999, it was known as the megasearch. With several members of the University's history department set to retire, a fair amount of debate had arisen over what kinds of faculty would replace them. What fields? What eras?

What no one expected was the College of Liberal Arts' decision not to consider specific fields or eras at all, but instead to concentrate on finding the most promising or accomplished history scholars, whatever their specialties.

History professor Eric Weitz, a scholar of 20th-century Germany who now holds the Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair in Liberal Arts, today calls himself one of the "lucky beneficiaries" of the search, which initially drew 1,300 candidates.

A history professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield at the time of the search, Weitz was drawn to the University position because he "wanted a research university job. I wanted what a large university offers: more diverse populations and more focus on research as well as teaching.”

Weitz says he knew from the time he was 12 that he would be a historian, settling on his German specialization after a "wonderful course" in German history during his undergraduate years at the State University of New York at Binghampton. It is not, he admits, always an uplifting field.

“When you study Germany, you inevitably study genocide,” he says. "It tends to have a unique status in public consciousness. More important now is comparing it to other instances of atrocities, such as Cambodia, or the Soviets in the 1940s and '50s. It's important to know that there are certain common patterns to those times when states organize populations to kill others on the basis of race or ethnic identity.”

Weitz is at work on a book on the subject of comparative genocide, which he hopes will be an important contribution to the field.

“I believe knowledge of history should be a fundamental aspect of anyone's education,” Weitz says. "Knowledge of the past—even if it's not immediately and obviously relevant—gives important information about how people organized their lives. It's the only thing that gives us perspective.”

Beyond the heat of the moment

Beyond sharing his passion for history, though, Weitz hopes his most important contribution to his students is that they come to "appreciate not just history, but the importance and value of learning. I try to convey that—and I believe it's something not always understood by the general public. Education is not a consumer product, it's not a fast food, not something to use and dispose of.

“It's not just about training for jobs, but about deeper life sensibilities, about what it means to be human. Unfortunately, this is an argument the U has to make time and time again.”

September 11 has made that argument more compelling. Since that day, members of the history faculty have been called upon again and again to help put the attacks in perspective."The enormity of the events makes us more aware of a key aspect of our role as teachers,” says Weitz—"to provide a setting where people feel free to voice a range of opinions, and to provide informed commentary that helps channel discussions toward deeper understanding rather than the shouting of slogans.

“People are really searching for understanding and for answers, and that search underscores for me the importance of history. Historians can't necessarily provide the immediate answers for contemporary politics, but we do have expertise on the various areas of the world, on many cultures, languages, and histories. We bring depth and perspective to the heat of the moment.”

The right choice

Two years after his hiring, Weitz knows he made the right choice. "I think CLA buries the myth that large public universities are not concerned about undergraduate education anymore,” he says. "I think the college and the university are doing everything right—expanding the opportunities to have a small classroom environment, creating a variety of learning settings for the students.

“It's a combination of a lively intellectual atmosphere, the ability to work with graduate students, and commitment to undergraduate education: You can't ask for anything more from an institution of higher learning.”

The surge of new hirings that brought him to the college "is vital,” says Weitz. "An institution that cannot innovate and bring in programs for undergraduates has a death sentence.”

“I also like the fact that there's a commitment here to the community at large. This is a public university, and it's important to be accessible to the public, to be open to community involvement.”