Convocation to Kick Off New Academic Year at Washington and Lee The event will be held on the Front Lawn at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, and Roosevelt Montás from Columbia University will provide remarks.

By Brian Laubscher
August 13, 2024

The W&L community is invited to celebrate a new academic year with Convocation on the Front Lawn at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4. Dinner will follow on Cannan Green. This event is a great opportunity to meet the first-year undergraduate and law students, as well as to welcome seniors and third-year law students back for their final year.

Roosevelt Montás, senior lecturer in American studies and English at Columbia University and former director of the Columbia Center for the Core Curriculum, will deliver this year’s remarks, titled “Sacred and Worldly Meanings in Our Condition of Freedom.”

“The occasion of Convocation calls us to reflect on the character of our community and on the purposes for which we come together,” said Montás. “It is an occasion to consider this time in our history, and this moment in our lives. My talk will invite us to take stock of the collective and individual commitments that sustain human flourishing and the life of freedom.”

The W&L community can also watch Montás’ address via livestream at go.wlu.edu/convocation-live.

Montás was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York City as a teenager, attending public schools in Queens before entering Columbia College in 1991 through its Opportunity Programs. He earned B.A., M.A. and Ph.D degrees from Columbia, with his dissertation, “Rethinking America,” earning Columbia’s 2004 Bancroft Award.

In 2000, Montás received Columbia’s Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student, and in 2008, he received the Dominican Republic’s National Youth Prize. Montás regularly teaches moral and political philosophy in the Columbia Core Curriculum, as well as seminars in American studies.

Montás serves as director of the Center for American Studies’ Freedom and Citizenship Program, which brings low-income high school students to the Columbia campus to study political theory and helps them prepare successful applications to college. His book, “Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation,” details the experiences of Montás 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.