News & Events

On November 14, Professor Roosevelt Montás (Columbia University) gave a lecture to approximately 100 CCNY students drawing insight from his book “Rescuing Socrates,” which explores the enduring relevance of classical education in modern times. Montás, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, shared how the Great Books—texts by luminaries like Plato, Augustine, Freud, and Gandhi—profoundly influenced his life and intellectual development.

Roosevelt Montás is Senior Lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University. He was Director of the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia College from 2008 to 2018. Roosevelt specializes in Antebellum American literature and culture, with a particular interest in American citizenship. His dissertation, Rethinking America: Abolitionism and the Antebellum Transformation of the Discourse of National Identity, won Columbia University’s 2004 Bancroft Award.