CBH Talk | The Embattled University
As the new academic year starts, join three former and current higher education leaders for a conversation about the crises and controversies on campuses across the country.
Nicholas B. Dirks, veteran university administrator at both the University of California Berkeley and Columbia University and current President and CEO of The New York Academy of Science, leads a discussion with Katherine E. Fleming, former Provost of New York University and current President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, and Josef Sorett, Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education.
Amid on-campus agitation post-October 7th, explosive tensions between free speech and political beliefs, issues of funding, science denial and more, these distinguished speakers bring their insights and deep experience to essential questions on the current position and future possibilities of the American university.
Participants
Nicholas B. Dirks is President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences, one of the oldest scientific organizations in the United States. Previously, Nick served as Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and Executive VP and Dean of the Faculty for Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. A leading scholar of South Asian history, anthropology and postcolonial studies, he is the author of eight books, including City of Intellect: The Uses and Abuses of the University. Follow Nick on Twitter @nickdirks.
Katherine E. Fleming, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an accomplished leader and internationally recognized scholar of Mediterranean history, religion and culture. Fleming was Provost of New York University (NYU) from 2016-2022 and holds the A.S. Onassis Chair of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in NYU’s department of history. She serves on the boards of several institutions including the ALIPH Foundation, Barnard College, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, and the Universities of Paris system. Fleming began her career in California, earning her doctorate at UC Berkeley and then teaching at various institutions in Southern California before going to NYU in 1998.
Josef Sorett is Dean of Columbia College, Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor, and Vice President for Undergraduate Education. As a professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies, he has served on the faculty at Columbia since 2009. A scholar of religion and race in American culture, Dean Sorett has published three books, along with numerous academic articles and popular essays, on topics ranging from popular music, to sexual politics, and literary history. His most recent book, Black is a Church: Christianity and the Contours of African American Life, came out in 2023.
