Guiding Curiosity: Kevin Young Joins Honors College as Murray Professor

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Professor Kevin Young

This fall, Kevin Young, a professor of Economics, will begin his role as the Commonwealth Honors College Murray Professor. The Murray Professorship is an opportunity that allows a faculty member to join the Honors College for a period of two to three years, during which they contribute to enriching the academic and intellectual experience of honors students.

As this term’s Murray Professor, Young expressed a particular interest in exploring and expanding the creative dimensions of research. He aims to guide students beyond the technical aspects of their projects, encouraging them to engage with the deeper philosophical questions that inspire inquiry. His approach emphasizes that research is not just about gathering data or testing hypotheses, but it is also about curiosity, imagination, and the pursuit of understanding. 

By helping students reflect on the motivations and ideas that drive their studies, he hopes to cultivate a more holistic and thoughtful research process, one that connects academic rigor with personal and intellectual exploration.

Young has taught at the Honors College for many years as a professor at UMass and has also served as a faculty sponsor for students pursuing an independently contracted thesis. For the past three years, Young has taught the Honors Thesis course, ECON 499C & 499D ‘Corporate Power, Elites and the Super-Rich’. Now, Young is excited to dive deeper and plans to immerse himself in the Honors College so that he can cultivate a valuable experience for students.

Specifically, Young plans to implement curricular projects for students interested in a range of subject areas—particularly research design, learning new methods, collecting and interpreting data patterns, and the philosophies of knowledge and learning. He also plans to host research literacy workshops that help students begin their academic inquiries from the ground up. He noted that students are often inspired by an idea but unsure how to best approach their research, and his aim is to address this challenge through mentorship and guidance. Additionally, Young will work with faculty to coordinate speaking engagements that foster cross-collaboration across disciplines, which he believes is central to intellectual exploration.

Young also noted that he is eager to build on the work of previous Murray Professors, who have studied the most effective approaches to student learning. 

He expressed excitement about continuing this pursuit, with a focus on the connection between students’ curiosity and creativity in their academic endeavors.