Anthony Marx

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Anthony W. Marx, President of Amherst College

Anthony W. Marx (born 1959) is the current president of Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was inaugurated on October 26, 2003. Prior to assuming the post, Marx was Professor and Director of undergraduate studies of Political Science at Columbia University.

He is an alumnus of the Bronx High School of Science after which he attended Wesleyan University and Yale University; in 1981 he received a B.S. magna cum laude from Yale. He received an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1986, followed by M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton in 1987 and 1990.

After graduating from Yale, Marx spent a year in South Africa participating in the anti-Apartheid movement. Even after returning to the U.S. for graduate school at Princeton, he returned frequently to participate in the founding of Khanya College, a secondary school which prepared black students for university.[1][2]

As enumerated in a BusinessWeek interview, part of the Amherst Board of Trustees' reasons for choosing Marx as college president is his outspoken criticism of a lack of socioeconomic diversity on American college campuses (especially higher-rated schools). The Board of Trustees share Marx's view on a lack of economic diversity and hired him so that he might affect change. President Marx has already begun opening Amherst (a traditionally elite school of students from upper class households) to qualified students from lower income families. One example is Marx’s support for the 'QuestBridge College Match' program at Amherst. From their webpage QuestBridge is, "…an alternative college admission and financial aid process specifically tailored to bright, motivated low-income students. [An] alternative process aids low-income students in presenting a full picture of their intellectual promise and personal qualities in light of their limited resources".[3][4]

Marx is author of three books on nation-building, and has concentrated on South Africa.

He is married to Karen Barkey, a professor of history and sociology at Columbia University. They have two children, Joshua and Anna-Claire.