A struggling economy and an unknown country do not normally prompt academics to move across the world. But for many of NYU Abu Dhabi's newest faculty recruits, the opportunity was worth the risks.
New NYUAD professor Matthew Silverstein, a philosophy professor with a wife and one-year-old son, had a lot to consider before he signed on board to start work in the United Arab Emirates.
Silverstein had applied for more than 60 positions at a number of schools after he finished his post-doctoral research at Amherst College. In the end, the allure of the middle east won out.
"Upon further consideration, I got very excited about the mission of the institution, about moving to the Emirates and about having ties to NYU," he said. "The more I learned about the city, the country and the sort of university NYU was trying to create there, the more excited I became about becoming a part of that institution."
Silverstein is not alone; he will be joining a faculty roster of more than 300 — many of whom have terminal degrees.
According to Ron Robin, NYUAD senior vice provost, since the satellite campus is so young and is located in a country many people don't have much knowledge of, faculty took extra time weighing their options before accepting a postion at NYUAD.
"It's not very easy to recruit for something that didn't exist," Robin said. "That takes an emotional and intellectual toll on anybody. These [positions] are for builders."
Silverstein has a tenure-track appointment and hopes to be at NYUAD for many years.
And though NYU has recruited from across the globe, students will not see faculty from local Emirate universities.
"We have no intention of raiding local institutions," Robin said. "That's not usually the type of faculty we're looking for."
If anything, students may notice that a large part of the leadership team is made up of deans from Swarthmore College. Former president Alfred Bloom left the college to lead NYUAD.
The university is also working to make professors with Western backgrounds aware of cultural sensitivities natural at such an institution.
Silverstein, who will teach three classes next year, is excited about these differences.
"[NYUAD is] an American-style liberal arts college in a part of the world that doesn't have any," he said. "It will make for some fascinating, and ultimately important, cultural exchanges."
Because NYU is classified as Research University-Extensive by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, faculty at NYUAD must have strong research skills, Robin said.
All NYUAD faculty will be granted funding to complete research in the Emirates, to attend academic conferences and to take one trip home a year to visit their families.
New York departments that lose faculty to the Abu Dhabi campus will be given money to hire new faculty to fill positions by NYUAD. This monetary transfer from Abu Dhabi to Washington Square may amount to tens of millions of dollars after the campuses first few years in
existence.
A group of affiliated faculty from NYU's main campus will also travel to the Emirates to teach. But not all members will begin teaching in Abu Dhabi immediately. There are currently more faculty members than there are courses to teach at the campus, Robin said.
"It will take some time before all the affiliated faculty who have an
interest teaching in Abu Dhabi will actually teach there," Robin said.
