Craufurd Goodwin: Still Challenging Students after 40 Years in Economics

After teaching nearly 40 years at Duke, Craufurd Goodwin still finds himself amazed by what his students are capable of achieving.

In his senior Capstone seminar, for instance, Goodwin requires his students to read "a good hefty book" or several articles each week and then submit a paper the following Monday on that reading. They also must submit a substantial paper that they've worked on throughout the semester by the end of the year.

"And they all do it, no questions," said Goodwin, James B. Duke Professor of Economics and winner of this year's Howard D. Johnson Distinguished Teaching Award. "I really find teaching successful when the students are challenged and work hard, and that is possible when the students are of the quality that we have. I'm just amazed how you can keep raising the bar and they keep jumping over it."

Goodwin, who earned his Ph.D. in economics from Duke in 1958, demands much of himself as well. His weekends are regularly spent in a study in his house, where he painstakingly critiques his students' writings. He believes that getting students to think, speak and write clearly are skills that will serve them well throughout the rest of their lives.

"Their capacity to express themselves either in those written papers or in class ... is as important as anything they could ever take away from this place. Like most faculty, I've always been so impressed by the importance of that skill, to write effectively and communicate orally. I think we don't teach nearly enough of it here, so I try to compensate."

Based on comments submitted by former students, Goodwin's methods not only work, but are appreciated.

"Professor Goodwin treats his students like scholars and requires that they perform scholarly work," wrote Zarines Negron, a 1999 Duke graduate, in a letter supporting Goodwin's nomination for the teaching award. "That's what I admire most about his teaching style. He encourages you to both explore and trust your own intellectual abilities."

Jeremy Rossman, a 1998 Duke graduate, wrote that Goodwin's lectures made him feel "truly engaged, not only in a class, but also in a pursuit. ... His style was different, not lectures but discussions, not a professor giving insights, but a class of equals arriving at insights through dialogue."

In is not uncommon for these discussions to trail out of the classroom and into the quad, sometimes lasting through lunch. Or, they might be resumed in Goodwin's office in Perkins Library, where his door remains open. Or, they might be resurrected at Goodwin's house in Hillsborough, where students are frequently invited for lunch.

Goodwin himself is constantly looking for new academic pursuits, whether they be the connection between economics and the art world or the significance of the Bloomsbury Group, an association of early 20th century artists and intellectuals in Britain whose members included John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf.

"I think that's the only way to really stay alive," he said. "A 40-year career or longer in academe is a long one, and I think unless you adapt to changing interests and opportunities, you really dry out."

Goodwin exchanges e-mails with many of his former students, some of whom are now professors at universities like MIT and Stanford. Charles Clotfelter, Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics at Duke, is a former student of Goodwin's: "Craufurd provided me with a steady wisdom that is the reason so many in our profession, in the foundation world and in higher education have come to rely on his advice."

Neil Seigel, a 1994 Duke graduate who is about to launch his legal career as clerk to a federal judge in Virginia, wrote in his nominating letter that he considers Goodwin to be his mentor.

"As I begin to imagine myself as a teacher, I look to Craufurd as a role model. He is the sort of professor that I want to be - i.e., one who possesses intellectual vision beyond the often too-narrow purview of his own discipline, one who cares as much about teaching as publishing; one who cares as much about his students' personal well-being as their professional success, and, most importantly, one who is so deeply humane.

"If I am half as successful a teacher as Craufurd has been, I will have done something with my life. And if I am lucky enough to touch the life of a student half as deeply as Craufurd Goodwin's wisdom and compassion have touched mine, I will have accomplished a great deal."