Prof. William Cheng Discusses Care, Struggle, and Academia

Professor William Cheng, currently in residence as Rita E. Hauser Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, was interviewed recently in The Harvard Crimson. In the published interview, he discusses his career in academia, where he says that caring for the "whole person" is often "perceived to be extracurricular and kind of secondary."

"It can feel so low when your value as a human being is tethered to, let's say, academic achievement," Cheng is quoted. "And then, when the domain of your life doesn't work out, it feels like a blow up to your professional persona or to your personal persona because we have a hard time separating the two in our mind.

"My constant struggle is trying to figure out who I am aside from the work I do," says Cheng. "And I don't think it's ever too early to start thinking about that."

The full article is available here.