The distinguished career of Margaret Mukherjee ’56 spans decades and the globe

With a career spanning six decades, Margaret Reed Mukherjee ’56 has traveled the world as a global educator and Fulbright scholar, been on the forefront of women breaking into the highest ranks of academic leadership, mentored academics across the globe, and continues to teach and develop innovative approaches to pedagogy and research methodology.

Mukherjee grew up on a farm in upstate New York, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse, and first encountered Cornell through the extension service that helped modernize the family farm.

“Living on a farm is such preparation for life,” Mukherjee said. “Everyone is a member of a team and worked together to get things done on the farm. It was a wonderful and challenging experience and my parents were role models for my sister and I.”

Her parents connected with the Cornell Cooperative Extension service and were receptive to learning and adapting, and Cornell brought significant changes to the farm. “The extension people were paramount to my family,” she said. “I think that’s why my sister Barbara and I went to Cornell.”

Mukherjee studied Home Economics and Education. She said Human Ecology provided her with diverse opportunities to learn and experience the world that have proven foundational to her lifelong interest in global education. After graduating, she traveled to Turkey as part of the International Farm Youth Exchange Program, living with host families for six months.

“I had never been outside of New York State, let alone the country,” she said. “There was a great push to understand other cultures, and the best way to understand other cultures is to go and live and work with them.”

In 1961, Mukherjee earned a Masters in Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts from Michigan State. She met and married her husband Benoy (Ben), an engineering student originally from India, while at Michigan State, and moved to New Jersey where she started teaching at Montclair State University.

When her two sons were in preschool and second grade, Mukherjee began a doctoral program at Rutgers University, an hour commute both ways, and in 1978 received her Ph.D. in Urban Planning, Policy, and Development.

“It was important for me that I utilize my talents and do what I was able to do,” she said. “There wasn’t a great deal of support programs or staff for women who wanted to continue education, so we were sort of on our own, but I had amazing support from a group of women friends who stepped right in.”

After her doctorate, her teaching focus shifted to research methodology, eventually writing a textbook on the subject with two colleagues.

When Montclair began encouraging female faculty to apply to serve in the administration on a part-time basis while keeping faculty rank, she became a special assistant to the dean of her school. She then served as director of graduate studies, as Montclair sought university status, and eventually served as dean, developing computerized processes for admissions and matriculation in the graduate school.

After returning to her department to teach full-time, she was looking for other exciting challenges and applied for a grant through the State Department providing three years of faculty exchange at a university in Ukraine. In 1991, she lived in Ukraine working to develop critical thinking coursework for the university there.

This led to her teaching critical thinking coursework in China, Korea, and Austria, where she worked with faculty members on the methodology of teaching based on her research, talking with people in the field, and the experience of living in various countries.

Rather than just lecturing students and assuming they are absorbing the information, Mukherjee encouraged faculty to think of learning as a process.

“So many times we teach as we have been taught and people who haven’t been exposed to other forms of teaching will revert to lecturing,” she said. “There’s a place for lectures, but faculty need to understand that students need to process information on their own. If we could integrate everything we’ve ever heard, we’d all be amazing people, but that’s not how it works.”

In 2012, she spent a semester in Romania as a Fulbright Scholar. She then served as a Fulbright Specialist and spent three months in Vietnam leading workshops in teaching and research methodology. Her second Fulbright Specialist opportunity took her to Azerbaijan in 2015, where she worked with professors and graduate students on the development of their research projects.

These days, Mukherjee is gearing up to co-teach a spring course at the Brandeis Osher Lifetime Learning Institute (BOLLI) on the psychological, cultural, and historical aspects of why we dress the way we do.

As for future projects, she would like to write about growing up on a farm and how that impacts the attributes and abilities of those who do. When asked, Mukherjee credited the pursuit of lifelong learning and new experiences for her longevity, adding that she has been blessed with excellent physical health.

“I want other 84-year-olds, like myself, to feel alive, explore     new ideas, and to continue to learn and give to society,” she said.    “I continue to be on a journey, and I love it.”

May we all follow in such intrepid footsteps.