Amy A. Kass
Encyclopedia
Amy Apfel Kass is an American academic and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute
. Kass spent most of her career as a professor of classic texts in the College of the University of Chicago
. Her scholarly interests include courtship
and marriage
, civic engagement, citizenship
and citizen formation, and philanthropy
. Her books include Giving Well, Doing Good: Readings for Thoughtful Philanthropists, Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying, and What So Proudly We Hail: America’s Soul in Story, Speech, and Song.
from Brandeis University
. In 1973, Kass earned her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University
.
Kass’s teaching career began at Georgetown University
in 1969, where she taught at the Institute for Adult Education. She then taught at the Johns Hopkins University and St. John’s College in the 1970s. Her professional career at the University of Chicago started in 1978 when she was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Department.
Along with her husband Leon Kass
, Kass cofounded in 1977 the "Human Being and Citizen" common core course at Chicago, today the most popular humanities core course at Chicago, devoted to the question of what is an excellent human being and what an excellent citizen. She is also founding director of the "Tocqueville Seminars on Civic Leadership" at the University of Chicago.
Kass served on the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities
, as well as on the Council of Scholars of the American Academy of Liberal Education, and as a consultant on American history and civic education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
. In 2005 and 2006, Kass organized a lecture series at the Hudson Institute called “Dialogues on Civic Philanthopy”.
In 2011, Amy Kass co-edited the book, What So Proudly We Hail: America’s Soul in Story, Speech, and Song with Leon Kass, and Diana Schaub. The book is a compilation of short readings on areas of American identity, character, and civic life.
In addition to these longer works, Kass has also written articles on the themes of patriotism and civic duty for both the National Review
, and the Weekly Standard.
Throughout her academic career Kass has also received several grants for her work in civic engagement, including two from the Lilly Endowment
to run a project on civic leadership.
Selected Articles
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
. Kass spent most of her career as a professor of classic texts in the College of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Her scholarly interests include courtship
Courtship
Courtship is the period in a couple's relationship which precedes their engagement and marriage, or establishment of an agreed relationship of a more enduring kind. In courtship, a couple get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement or other such agreement...
and marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, civic engagement, citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
and citizen formation, and philanthropy
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
. Her books include Giving Well, Doing Good: Readings for Thoughtful Philanthropists, Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying, and What So Proudly We Hail: America’s Soul in Story, Speech, and Song.
Career
Kass received her B.A. from the University of Chicago, and her M.A.Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
. In 1973, Kass earned her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
.
Kass’s teaching career began at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in 1969, where she taught at the Institute for Adult Education. She then taught at the Johns Hopkins University and St. John’s College in the 1970s. Her professional career at the University of Chicago started in 1978 when she was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Department.
Along with her husband Leon Kass
Leon Kass
Leon Richard Kass is an American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning and euthanasia, as a critic of certain areas of technological progress and embryo research, and for his...
, Kass cofounded in 1977 the "Human Being and Citizen" common core course at Chicago, today the most popular humanities core course at Chicago, devoted to the question of what is an excellent human being and what an excellent citizen. She is also founding director of the "Tocqueville Seminars on Civic Leadership" at the University of Chicago.
Kass served on the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
, as well as on the Council of Scholars of the American Academy of Liberal Education, and as a consultant on American history and civic education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting...
. In 2005 and 2006, Kass organized a lecture series at the Hudson Institute called “Dialogues on Civic Philanthopy”.
Publications
Amy Kass has authored numerous articles and is the editor of five books, including the reader Giving Well, Doing Good: Readings for Thoughtful Philanthropists. Kass is also well-known for the compilations of courtship stories she co-edited with her husband, Leon Kass, called Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying.In 2011, Amy Kass co-edited the book, What So Proudly We Hail: America’s Soul in Story, Speech, and Song with Leon Kass, and Diana Schaub. The book is a compilation of short readings on areas of American identity, character, and civic life.
In addition to these longer works, Kass has also written articles on the themes of patriotism and civic duty for both the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, and the Weekly Standard.
Awards and Honors
Kass received the Llewelyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Chicago in 1980. She was also the recipient of the Florence Bamberger Award from The Johns Hopkins University.Throughout her academic career Kass has also received several grants for her work in civic engagement, including two from the Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana is one of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and is among the ten largest such endowments in the United States....
to run a project on civic leadership.
Selected Bibliography
Books- What So Proudly We Hail: America's Soul in Story, Speech, and Song. Ed. Amy A. Kass, Leon R. Kass, and Diana J. Schaub. N.p.: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011. (ISBN 1610170067)
- Kass, Amy A. Giving Well, Doing Good: Readings for Thoughtful Philanthropists. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. (ISBN 0253350484)
- Kass, Amy A. The Perfect Gift: The Philanthropic Imagination in Poetry and Prose. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. (ISBN 0253215420)
- Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying. Ed. Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass. N.p.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999. (ISBN 0268019606)
- Kass, Amy A. American Lives: Cultural Differences, Individual Distinction : An Anthology of American Autobiography. N.p.: Golden Owl Publishing Company, 1995. (ISBN 1566960932)
Selected Articles
- "The Liberal Arts Movement: From Ideas to Practice," in The College, XXV, October, 1973, pp.1-8,25-26
- "Autobiographers as Teachers: Toward Solving the Problem of Civic Education," in Philip Jackson and Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon, editors, From Socrates to Software: The Teacher as Text and the Text as Teacher, Eighty-ninth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Chicago, l989, pp.90-114.
- "The Education of Telemachos," in St. John's Review, XLI, number 1, 1991-1992, pp.39-60.
- "The Giving Tree : A Symposium," in First Things, January, 1995, pp.36-37.
- "Who Am I?: Autobiography and American Identity," in College Teaching, Fall, 1995, pp. 93-99.
- [with Leon R. Kass] "What's Your Name?", in First Things, November, 1995, pp.14-25
- [with Leon R. Kass] "Proposing Courtship," in First Things, October, 1999, pp.32-41