magazine - Somerville College - University of Oxford

Somerville Magzine | 23
A philosopher whose major work deals with moral
relativism, she tends to resist single-value responses
to questions about the best or the most important
aspect of her experiences. One that stands out from
her two years at Oxford, however, was the affi rmation
of her belief that she should pursue a career in the
academy. “Philosophy was and is still a discipline that
is relatively unfriendly to women but Somerville had
this tradition of wonderful academics, from Philippa
Foot to Elizabeth Anscombe” and continued by
younger women like her own tutor, Julie Jack.
“It confi rmed that it was the right thing for me.”
Another, not insignifi cant, benefi t of her years at
Somerville is that she met the man who would become
her husband. James Eli Adams was a Rhodes Scholar
at Exeter College and is now a Professor of English
and Comparative Literature at Columbia. They are
the parents of a daughter, Katherine, age 14.
She had been accepted for graduate work at Harvard
before leaving for Oxford and returned there for her
master’s and doctoral degrees. She then taught at
Wellesley and other colleges; at Cornell University
she held a chair in philosophy and for the past four
years served also as Vice Provost for Undergraduate
Education. This combination of scholarship and
administrative experience made her the ideal candidate
for her new position, which resembles that of the
principal of an Oxford college in terms of responsibility
for the overall student experience and also for
institutional relationships within the university.
As someone who cares about the life of the mind as
much as the life of the meeting, this combination
appealed to Moody-Adams, but she was particularly
drawn by Columbia’s commitment to the values of
the liberal arts as embodied in its unique “core
curriculum.” Established more than fi fty years ago,
this is a set of courses which cover the history of moral
and political thought from Plato to the present – as
well as masterpieces of Western literature, art and
music, and a new section on science.
The importance of the ‘core’, she believes, lies in its
capacity to stimulate and celebrate students’ intellectual
curiosity while also providing a common intellectual
experience that helps shape their lives throughout
and beyond their college years. Classes are small
and intensive, requiring a major investment of faculty
time and fi nancial resources, and there is perpetual
controversy over the works to be included but Moody-
Adams intends to give it her full support. “We must
continue tweaking to keep the tradition healthy but
we know the texts in the core continue to be valuable
because they constantly challenge us to ask different
questions.” On the other hand, choices must be made;
as much as she loves Plato, she knows that “you can’t
read every work of Plato every year.”
She also believes that in this increasingly complex world
all students should have some form of international
experience. “Our students need to understand that the
world can look very different when not fi ltered through
an American lens.”
In a college of more than 4,000 students, it is not
possible for the dean to get to know more than a
fraction of the whole but she is eager to meet as many
as possible by holding regular informal gatherings with
small groups. She knows that she is a role model for
many of the women students who hope to combine a
career with family and is pleased when student events
can also involve her husband and daughter.
When asked to describe her strengths as an
administrator, Moody-Adams speaks fi rst about
leadership. “I get things done,” she says. “I like to
set goals in collaboration with other people, and
then we can work together to determine how to
accomplish them.” Faculty governance inevitably
involves committees and she likes to listen to
intelligent ideas, not to rush discussion to early
closure, but she needs to know that the expenditure
of time is making a difference.
She is also wary of those who display the “hubris of
expertise,” people who see themselves as experts in
a particular fi eld and refuse to accept that they might
learn something from others. “We all need to be open
at least to refl ection from others; I try to live like that,
as a human being and as a scholar, and I hope others
would, too.”
The quasi-cloistered life of the scholar still holds
some appeal for Moody-Adams, and she would also
like to spend time in the classroom but she knows
that “to try to do everything would be shortchanging
everybody.” After a few short months in the Dean’s
chair, she was still working out the balance among
all the demands on her time but one has the feeling
that she will make careful choices and continue
the pattern of success that has been the hallmark
of her career. ■
Somerville is delighted to announce at the time of
printing that Michele Moody-Adams has been named
an Honorary Fellow of Somerville.
Toni Coffee has been a regular contributor to
Somerville publications for fi fteen years. She divides
her time between Oxford and New York City and is
a graduate of Barnard, the women’s undergraduate
college at Columbia University, where she is a former
editor of the alumnae magazine.