Featured Event
The Right to Property and Economic Development in India
April 17, 2024
Sawyer Chair, Thomas M. Keck
Professor Keck focuses on the Supreme Court, American constitutional development and the use of legal strategies for social change. In 2019, he was the recipient of the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, the so called "brainy award." For his leadership in creating an inclusive campus community that is nurturing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, Keck received the 2007-08 Foundation Award for Outstanding Faculty Member from the campus LGBT community. His first book, "The Most Activist Supreme Court in History: The Road to Modern Judicial Conservatism," was published in 2004.
About Michael O. Sawyer
One of Syracuse University's most beloved faculty and alumni, Michael O. Sawyer spent nearly all of his educational career as a student and teacher at Syracuse University, earning bachelor’s (1941), master’s (1947) and doctoral degrees (1957). He received a juris doctorate (1962) from George Washington University and a Ford Foundation post-doctoral fellowship, and was a scholar in residence for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He became an instructor at Maxwell in 1948.
At the conclusion of his 42nd year of teaching at the School in his final lecture to an overflowing crowd in historic Maxwell Auditorium, Sawyer was presented a special gift: a plaque bearing the original brass handles of the auditorium’s doors and the inscription "1948-1990, Professor Michael O. Sawyer, The Maxwell School, A part of the place forever.""
Sawyer was the recipient of Syracuse University's highest alumni honor, the George Arents Pioneer Medal in 1986, and he was awarded the St. Thomas Moore Award in 1987. Students voted him the Outstanding Professor of Syracuse University in 1986.
