Dickinson College to Host Lecture on Great Books for a New Generation
Roosevelt Montás
Rescuing Socrates
by Erin Lowe '23
Roosevelt Montás, a renowned academic and senior lecturer at Columbia University, will deliver Dickinson’s Morgan Lecture, “Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation.” The lecture will take place Thursday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public. Masks are optional. The lecture will also be livestreamed and available via a link on The Clarke Forum website.
Montás will explore the transformative power of classical texts for young people, especially those from historically marginalized communities. He will describe the way a liberal education shaped his life and the potential for the "great books" to do the same for the next generation.
Montás is a Dominican-born American academic who earned a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature, and he maintains a particular interest in American citizenship. At Columbia, he is also the director of the Center for American Studies’ Freedom and Citizenship program and the former director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum.
The Morgan Lectureship was endowed by Dickinson’s board of trustees in 1992, in grateful appreciation for the distinguished service of James Henry Morgan of the Class of 1878, dean, professor of Greek, and president of the College. The lectureship brings to campus a scholar in residence to meet informally with individuals and class groups and to deliver the Morgan Lecture on topics in the social sciences and humanities. Recent scholars have included Winona LaDuke, Lila Abu-Lughod, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Allissa Richardson.
The lecture is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Morgan Lecture Fund. It is co-sponsored by the Roberts Fund for Classical Studies and the Latin American, Latinx & Caribbean Studies Program.
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Published September 13, 2022