On Sunday, November 6, at 6:45 pm in the Koch Center’s Garonzik Auditorium, author and educator Roosevelt Montás will speak to faculty about the value and purpose of liberal arts learning today. Students that are interested are welcome to attend!
Montás is a Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University and the former director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum (2008-2018). He was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York as a teenager, where he attended public schools in Queens before entering Columbia College in 1991 through its Opportunity Programs. In 2003, he completed a Ph.D. in English, also at Columbia; his dissertation, Rethinking America, won Columbia University’s 2004 Bancroft Award. His recent book Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation details Montás’s experiences as a student and teacher, telling the story of how the Great Books transformed his life and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds.