NEW YORK — Bill de Blasio, who long ago plastered the lyrics to Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” on the wall of his New York University dorm room and later served as New York City’s 109th mayor, will return to his alma mater to teach this winter and spring, the school said Monday.
The move marks another step in the professorial pursuits of the progressive ex-politician, who has headed to Harvard University this fall to serve as a visiting fellow after a failed summer run for Congress.
NYU said de Blasio, 61, will arrive at the Greenwich Village school in January for formal talks, and then teach a course for graduate students in the spring. His post will be within NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
After serving two terms as mayor, de Blasio left City Hall at the end of last year, returning to his home neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn.
“When I graduated from NYU in the 1980′s, I never dreamed of a path that would lead me to City Hall and then back to my alma mater,” de Blasio said in a Monday statement. “Now I get to help others develop their dreams. I’m truly excited.”
At NYU, de Blasio, then wild-haired and called Bill Wilhelm, majored in metropolitan studies and engaged in student activism. He received his undergraduate degree in 1984, and later earned a master’s degree from Columbia University.
As he ended his doomed Democratic run for his House district in July, de Blasio said, “Public service is what I want to do, and that can take all sorts of forms: nonprofits and any number of good causes.”
It seems, for the moment at least, he has set sights on the world of academics.
Sherry Glied, dean of NYU’s Wagner Graduate School, said in a statement that de Blasio’s arrival will offer “students, faculty, and graduates an incomparable opportunity to learn from someone with enormous experiences and many hard-won successes.”
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