'Professor' Joe Biden: former veep takes Ivy teaching gig
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jan. 12, 2017: Vice President Joe Biden smiles in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP)
Joe Biden has a new title: Ivy League professor.
The former vice president, who has been out of a job exactly 18 days, has landed a new gig at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will teach a new generation the ins and outs of international diplomacy. Biden will lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a new center focused principally on diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security. The Center will be located in Washington, but the Scranton-born Biden will also have an office on the Penn campus in Philadelphia.
“Joe Biden is one of the greatest statesmen of our times,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “In his distinguished career of service to our nation, he has demonstrated a unique capacity to bring people together across divides and to craft constructive responses to some of the toughest and most important policy challenges of our day.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 74-year-old Biden, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1973-2009 and then was President Obama’s No. 2 for eight years, will hold joint appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences, with a secondary affiliation in the Wharton School.
“At Penn, I look forward to building on the work that has been a central pillar of my career in public office: promoting and protecting the post-WWII international order that keeps the United States safe and strong,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden’s old boss, President Obama, is no stranger to academia either, having taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But Biden's career in the classroom could prove short-lived. In December, he told reporters he could not rule out a fourth run for president.
“Yeah, I am," he said when asked if he would try for the White House again. "I am going to run in 2020.”