The Dartmouth Review’s feature on “Dartmouth’s Best Professors,” published annually early in the Fall Term, recently recognized Rockefeller Center Senior Associate Director and Senior Policy Fellow and Research Assistant Professor of Government Herschel Nachlis.
The Review also recognized faculty affiliated with the Rockefeller Center who teach courses cross-listed in the Rockefeller Center’s Public Policy (PBPL) Minor, including Sociology Professor Henry Clark, Rockefeller Center Faculty Council Member and Government Department Chair, Professor Lucas Swaine, and Economics Professor John Welborn. Social Science faculty also recognized include Carl Estabrook (History), Jeffrey Friedman (Government), Douglas Irwin (Economics), and Meir Kohn (Economics), alongside colleagues from other academic divisions across Dartmouth.
The Review notes of Professor Nachlis that his approach “brings to the classroom both an academic’s rigor and a policy practitioner’s sense of urgency,” and adds that “he genuinely cares about student growth” and “creates space for genuine dialogue.”
The full writeup follows below:
“Herschel Nachlis – Government and Public Policy
Professor Nachlis is one of the most versatile teachers at Dartmouth, bridging the worlds of public policy, law, and American politics. As Associate Director of the Rockefeller Center and a member of the government faculty, he brings to the classroom both an academic’s rigor and a policy practitioner’s sense of urgency. His courses, which blend a sense of legal reasoning with political science, generally focus on health policy, regulation, and political institutions. He genuinely cares about student growth, but beware going to class without having done the readings. He creates space for genuine dialogue; when challenges arise – academic or otherwise – he listens earnestly. Nachlis has been honored with the George Kateb Prize for excellence in the classroom and as Class Day Speaker for the Dartmouth Class of 2024. Taking a class with Nachlis offers insight into pressing policy debates but also the kind of academic workout that leaves you sharper than when you walked in.”