Since 1996, the Delta of Connecticut Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa has invited poets and other speakers to read at the PBK spring initiation ceremony. Faculty members present at the fall Winthrop Scholars ceremony when students are elected to PBK. Here are some of the professors and notables who have presented their work:
2009
Matthew Noah Smith, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and occasional Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School.
Smith will deliver "The Importance of What They Care About," on Thursday, April 16 at 4:15 p.m., Blaustein Faculty Lounge. Smith's work focuses on the ethics of interpersonal relationships as realized within a range of contexts like legal orders, trusting relationships, loving relationships, religious communities, political communities, etc. A major part of his research is focused on the "dynamics of sociality" - the phenomenal structure and governing norms of these contexts.
2008
Pamela Alexander
2007
Members of the Class of 2007: Laura Jo Hess, Grace Elizabeth Kendall
2006
Yibing Huang, Assistant Professor of Chinese, department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Connecticut College.
Works include: a Chinese-English bilingual book of poetry, Stone Turtle: Poems 1987-2000 (Godavaya, 2005), which he translated into English, prefaced by the renowned Asian American writer Russell Leong, and reviewed in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture and Amerasia Journal. His poetry work has been published in China since the 1980s, and is included in many prestigious anthologies. During the 90's in Beijing, he quickly established himself as a poet under the pen name "Mai Mang," and was closely associated with a new generation of young poets based in Beijing.
2004
Wendy Battin, co-founder of the Contemporary American Poetry Archive (CAPA), where out-of-print volumes of poetry are preserved on-line and can be accessed free of charge by anyone with internet access.
2003
Members of the Class of 2003: Lauren Elizabeth Mitchell, Geoffrey Carter Babbitt, Andrew James Seguin. Ian Christopher Abrams, Brooke Julia Gessay
2001
Charles O. Hartman, Professor of English, Poet in Residence and Co-Director of Creative Writing Program at Connecticut College.
Works include: Glass Enclosure, True North, and The Pigfoot Rebellion. His most recent collection, The Long View, was published in 2000. He is co-founder with Wendy Battin of the Contemporary American Poetry Archive (CAPA), where out-of-print volumes of poetry are preserved on-line and can be accessed free of charge by anyone with internet access.
2000
Rosanna Warren, University Professor at Boston University
A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets
Works include: Stained Glass, which won the Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and a translation of Euripides's Suppliant Women (with Stephen Scully)
Guggenheim Fellow. Recipient of the Lila Wallace Readers' Digest Award, among other honors.
1999
Kate Rushin, Director, Center of African American Studies; Visiting Writer, African American Studies Program; and Adjunct Lecturer in English, Wesleyan University
Author of The Black Back-Ups
Recipient of The Rose Low Rome Memorial Poetry Prize and the Grolier Poetry Prize
1998
Michael Collier '76, Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
Director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Author of The Ledge (2000), The Neighbor (1995), The Folded Heart (1989), and The Clasp and Other Poems (1986).
Recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, NEA fellowships, and the Discovery/The Nation award, among other honors.
1996
J. D. McClatchy , Editor of The Yale Review
Collections of poems: Scenes from Another Life (1981), Stars Principal (1986), The Rest of the Way (1990), and Ten Commandments (1998)
Collections of literary essays White Paper (1989) and Twenty Questions (1998)
Author of four opera libretti, most recently "Emmeline" for Tobias Picker, commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera.
A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets