F&M Stories

Winner of both the Lindback and Dewey Awards, Joel Eigen has been, for 40 years, the embodiment of our ideal of the Scholar/Teacher, and a fully engaged citizen of the College. As a scholar, Dr. Eigen has become the internationally recognized expert in the history of psychiatric testimony in English courts, publishing three highly regarded and beautifully written books based on meticulous historical research on the origins and dynamics of the insanity defense in England. These books have garnered praise across the disciplines. The first, Witnessing Insanity, was awarded the Mannfred S. Guttmacher Prize from the American Psychiatric Association. Historian Ivan Crozier called his most recent, Mad-Doctors in the Dock, "a scholarly triumph," adding that "it is a rare treat to read history this good." Yet the project is animated by the uniquely sociological concepts and concerns that Dr. Eigen brings to bear on the development of medical, legal, and philosophical perspectives on reason and madness. In both its interdisciplinary breadth and depth, his trilogy constitutes a remarkable achievement.

As a citizen of the College, Dr. Eigen's achievements are equally impressive. He has served multiple tours of duty on the Professional Standards Committee, helped select deans and provosts, and chaired committees ranging from musical programming at Barshinger Center to creating an FSA-funded scholarship for local high school students. And in 2005, rather than simply contemplating retirement, he took on a completely new challenge, as the first Don of Ware College House—a position he held for 10 years.

Dr. Eigen has always had strong opinions about what F&M could be and should become, and he has never hesitated to act in support of his vision. When he came to campus in 1976, rumors abounded that the Department of Sociology was slated for elimination. Dr. Eigen's response was to march into the Dean's office and politely but insistently request to be made Chair and be given the support required to revitalize the program. The Dean acquiesced, and the rest, as they say, is history.

If you've ever been a student in one of Dr. Eigen's classes, however, you know where his heart resides. He is truly a master teacher; charismatic and demanding, he simultaneously motivates, challenges, and supports his students. He is a consummate lecturer who embraces discussion and small group work with equal enthusiasm and skill, and who has never, for one semester, stopped looking for ways to make each class better than the last. His legendary Criminology course has been a fixture on students' "must take" lists for years. Graduates of his History of Sociological Theory course find that what they thought would be the hardest course they would ever take also turned out to be one of the most rewarding. In the words of one of his former students, "You never forget an Eigen class." The legacy that Joel Eigen has left us in his writing, teaching, and service on campus similarly ensures that the F&M community will never forget him.

Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology Joel P. Eigen