Penn State Emeritus Academy helps ‘create a community,’ with new lecture series open to all

Within Penn State exists an elite but unconventional academy.

It lacks classrooms, students or even a building of its own, and though it has dozens of distinguished professors, they’re all retired.

Welcome to the Emeritus Academy, a budding initiative to provide a community for emeriti faculty, support their research and, new this year, offer the Explorations series of free monthly lectures by academy members.

Provided they’re still researching or pursuing creative projects, faculty awarded emeritus status upon retirement can join the academy for initial three-year memberships to earn the title “academy professor,” allowing them to present lectures if they wish and apply for stipends to aid their work. Since being founded in 2023 by the university’s Office of Faculty Affairs and the University Faculty Senate, the academy has grown to 62 professors from 11 campuses.

“Both parties really saw a strength in keeping retired emeritus faculty connected to the university,” said Ann Clements, a music education professor and associate vice provost for faculty affairs who helps lead the academy. “As a university professor, I think many of us are tied to what we do in really strong and unique ways. We build our identity around our research or creative practice, and that doesn’t go away when someone retires.”

A major step forward for the academy has been the Explorations series. After four lectures last fall, the spring series kicks off Jan. 28 with a Zoom-only presentation at 9 a.m. by Kenji Uchino, an emeritus professor of electrical engineering whose talk, “New Science — Scientific Approach to the Unknown World,” will blend quantum physics with Zen Buddhism to discuss the universe and possible afterlife.

Other spring semester lectures, on Feb. 19, March 20, and April 15, will take place in Foster Auditorium at the Pattee-Paterno Library, in addition to being presented via Zoom.

Uchino’s topic exemplifies the eclectic spirit of the series, which aims to give the university community and the public a mix of entertaining, thought-provoking talks drawn from diverse disciplines in order to showcase member scholarship. For example, one event last fall brought together four panelists from different fields to discuss climate change.

“I think the academy offers members an opportunity to share their work broadly to general audiences, including the public, as well as to share it in a new interdisciplinary way,” Clements said. “I don’t know many other places on campus, besides perhaps the large interdisciplinary research institutes, where we’ve got people now having conversations about common themes while bringing in the lens of their personal expertise.”

Glen Mazis, an emeritus professor of philosophy and humanities who will give the March 20 lecture titled “The Animal as Source of Human Excellence,” helped arrange the series as its subcommittee chair. He said one goal was to foster the kind of intellectual exchanges and constructive feedback members enjoyed throughout their academic careers.

“Part of it also was to just help create a community, a way to get together,” he said, noting that social gatherings for members precede lectures. “What’s neat about the Emeritus Academy is that there are people from all these different fields. The idea of the lecture series is to present your research in such a way that people from other fields as well as the public can understand it.”

When Ellen Knodt, an emerita professor of English, retired in 2021, she maintained some ties to academia, such as mentoring students, while continuing to study Ernest Hemingway’s works. Once the academy emerged, she readily joined, thinking “the possibility of linking with like-minded retired professors was intriguing.”

Now, after having helped the grant program and lecture series get off the ground, she’s set to present the Feb. 19 talk, “Discoveries in the Archives,” about searching for clues to ambiguities in Hemingway’s newly published letters and original manuscripts.

“I look forward to explaining what ‘treasures’ I have found in archival materials that have led to new interpretations of some of Hemingway’s best-known works,” she said in an email. “I hope the general audience for this talk will better understand and appreciate what research in the humanities is all about.”

Noting that the academy is “very new and still defining its roles,” Knodt said she also looks forward to “its continuing growth and impact.” So does Mazis, who hopes it can partner eventually with lifelong learning institutes and local groups to hold additional lectures. In the meantime, he appreciates what he and his peers have once again: a collegial, vibrant environment for discourse and discovery.

“It’s a challenge to be retired because academia is so involved, and then all of a sudden, here you are on your own,” he said. “Some people still have contracts, but for many of us, we’re all of a sudden very isolated. To be part of the Emeritus Academy, aside from the lectures, to go to the meetings and see people, it’s just a way of staying connected.”

What: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Explorations spring lecture series

When:

• Jan. 28, Kenji Uchino, “New Science — Scientific Approach to the Unknown World,” 9 a.m., Zoom only

• Feb. 19, Ellen Knodt, “Discoveries in the Archives,” 2:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium, Pattee-Paterno Library, or via Zoom

• March 20, Glen Mazis, “The Animal as Source of Human Excellence,” Foster Auditorium, Pattee-Paterno Library, or via Zoom

• April 15, Michael Green, “From Engineering to Physiology to Nutritional Biochemistry: Applying Mathematics and Computer Modeling to Vitamin A Metabolism and the Assessment of Vitamin A Status in Community Settings,” 2:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium, Pattee-Paterno Library, or via Zoom

Cost: Free

Details (including lecture descriptions and Zoom links): facultyaffairs.psu.edu/explorations-the-penn-state-emeritus-academy-lecture-series

This story was originally published January 26, 2025 at 6:10 AM.