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F a c u l t y / Te a c h i n g
a man of big ideas Dr. Sugrue Wants Students to Learn About “The Best That’s Thought and Said” by BRIGID O’MALLEY
M
ichael Sugrue has a plan for his students. “You come to college to read and write and talk,” he said. That’s why some of his lucky Ave Maria University students have a 15-minute individual, oral exam for a midterm. He wants to talk to them and exchange ideas. He secretly hopes they disagree with him. “I want them to discuss the work,’’ he said. “I want them to think. They don’t have to like what I like. They need have original thoughts. What’s interesting is when we disagree.’’ Sugrue, who hails from Long Island, New York, is a Professor of History. He holds a B.A. from The University of Chicago and an M.A. and M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Before coming to Ave Maria, Professor Sugrue taught history, philosophy, religion, literature and politics at Princeton. During his 10 years at Princeton, he was a member of the Council for the Humanities and the department of politics. Earlier, he taught at Johns Hopkins and Columbia University. Sugrue teaches world history, American history, the history of Western philosophy and the history of literature at AMU. He is married to Dr. Seana Sugrue. He recently completed a one-year sabbatical at Princeton where he taught for the last academic year. Sugrue saw an advertisement for faculty members in 2004 and came to AMU to
interview. He wanted to move to Florida to be closer to his parents. He said he was ready to leave Princeton and move somewhere closer to his Catholic values. “I like the campus,’’ he said. “It’s a campus of moral order.” He said the competence and professionalism that have since followed in the President Jim Towey administration has been tremendous for faculty members. Sugrue’s Humanities course is one of the most popular on campus. His students will read one book per week for 12 weeks. “It enlarges their thinking,’’ he said. He said he thinks all students benefit of learning about “the best that’s thought and said.” His favorite philosopher to teach: Plato. “You can feel Plato cutting new grooves in their brains,’’ he said. And when Plato or another great thinker awakens a student’s learning, he really enjoys it. “It makes me feel like a million bucks,’’ he said. Sugrue doesn’t talk about his prostate cancer in class. He was diagnosed three years ago and underwent chemotherapy, radiation and surgery and now is in remission. “It really reminded me that I’m not in control anymore,’’ he said. But many on campus know about his health struggles. It hasn’t changed his teaching methods in the classroom, but it has changed his outlook on life. He takes time out to enjoy his family and other nonscholarly endeavors, he says. One of those is obvious to visitors. On the wall outside his office door in the Henkels Academic Building is a photograph of a proud fisherman. It’s Sugrue showing off his 20-pound red grouper. He caught it about 100 miles offshore of Naples. “Hopefully, soon I’ll be back out there,’’ he says, smiling. amu
“You come to college to read and write and talk.” 26
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