A couple of pictures from my last assignment and the article to go along with it...
Professor Timothy Engstrom
“Once you meet Professor Engstrom, you can’t forget him,” RIT photography student Kirsten Thorson recalls, “he’s engaging, remembers your name, and is what you would hope every Professor would be.” One wouldn’t expect such praises from a student of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, as Engstrom is a Philosophy professor, yet Timothy Engstrom is a Professor that has cross-disciplinary interest. He has written the article From Text to Image: The Challenge of Visual Technologies to the Teaching of Philosophy and teaches the course The Philosophy of Film currently. Upon meeting him, students generally feel challenged and interested in learning more, as his variety of life experiences prove him to be most curious.
Engstrom has had a plethora of learning opportunities that have lead him to Rochester Institute of Technology. He grew up in upstate New York, and attended St. Lawrence, a small liberal art school he classified as “preppy and private—too narrow but solid.” While attending St. Lawrence, Engstom skied competitively, a hobby he still enjoys today. After his undergraduate degree, he followed his romantic ideals to Sweden, where his father was raised. He enjoyed the liberal, socially conscious environment, and got in touch with his family’s roots. From that point he studied in Britain, Germany, and Scotland, where he earned his PHD.
A decade spent in Europe was enough for Engstrom to feel the pull back to the United States. First, he taught at the University of Hawaii, but realized that he felt even farther away from home than he had been in Europe, “I couldn’t stay there permanently—I had aging parents, and I couldn’t afford any property or space there with a teaching salary.” He also felt that another white man in there culture was not what the Hawaiians needed, illustrating his deep understanding of cultural and historical issues.
After receiving a teaching position at RIT in 1988, he has gone on to inspire a wide variety of people. One particular accomplishment involved collaborating with a friend Wade L. Robison to make the book Health Care Reform (Ethics and Politics) that was inspired after the Clinton Administration. Going over questions such as why it failed delved into the heart of deeper obligations and ethical underpinnings, Engstrom believes. Even now, with the Obama administration, he is still drawing attention from medical societies, faith organizations, and others for guidance and discussion. Ultimately, he hopes that all constituencies get involved in their political system.
Personally, my interest in Professor Engstrom was spurred by the question “how does this man maintain such a lively and inspiring existence?” From meeting with him and watching the time he pours into his students’ work, I realized that his existence is multi-faceted and that not one answer can be expressed from such a vague question. “I love ideas, I love reading and writing about ideas, and I am in a discipline where you take ideas seriously,” he succinctly sums up his career and livelihood. Such a person will likely continue to work and explore new paradigms of reason in this world that is relative to each individual.
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