Community Corner
Scholar, former Kenyon College president to speak on Civility in Liberal Arts
STAMFORD, Conn. – Georgia Nugent, former president of Kenyon College and classics scholar, will speak on Civility in the Liberal Arts on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. at the Ferguson Library in Stamford.
Her talk is part of a series on Civility in America, organized by the City of Stamford and The Dilenschneider Group. Sacred Heart University and Purdue Pharma LP are sponsoring the series in conjunction with Hearst Media Group in Connecticut and the Ferguson Library.
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Nugent, who is Senior Fellow at the Council of Independent Colleges, served as the 18th president of Kenyon College from 2003 to 2013.
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She was the first woman to hold the presidency in the history of the college, and she came to Kenyon from Princeton University, where she had been dean of the Harold McGraw Jr. Center for Teaching and Learning.
A widely published scholar of the classics, Nugent specializes in epic poetry, and she enjoys exploring the lives of maverick female characters.
She graduated cum laude from Princeton in 1973, a member of the university’s first coeducational class, and she later became the first female graduate of Princeton to hold a full-time faculty appointment there.
Nugent earned a Ph.D. in classics from Cornell University and began her teaching career as an instructor at Swarthmore College before returning to Princeton as an assistant professor in 1979. In 1985, she moved to the classics department at Brown University, where she was appointed associate professor.
Seven years later, she again answered the call of her alma mater, becoming assistant to the president and then associate provost. Nugent became dean of the McGraw Center in 2001. In this capacity, she worked with a variety of programs to enhance teaching and learning at Princeton.
Nugent has received many teaching awards and was among the earliest lecturers included in the nationally distributed “Superstar Teachers” series of audio and videotapes. She speaks frequently on issues of higher education leadership, as well as the relevance of the Greek and Roman Classics to contemporary society.
Public opinion polls show that in every sector of society, civility has declined, and this decline is manifested in political attacks, lack of personal decency, outrage in the media and cyber-assaults in the blogosphere.
Stamford Mayor Pavia believes the Civility Series will fuel an ongoing discussion of civility and encourage people to follow through with action.
“The series brings together leaders from many disciplines – education, the arts, media, business and politics -- to have a meaningful and powerful dialogue about an unmistakable tenet of our society,” he said. “Our city is the ideal place for such a conversation to begin, and I know Stamford can lead other cities, the state, and the country on this critical front.”
Robert L. Dilenschneider, founder and president of The Dilenschneider Group, who conceived the idea for the series, said, “Certain segments of society have become known for their lack of civility, such as politics and the Internet, and liberal arts is certainly a concern because of changes that have occurred in recent decades. Higher education is truly an area that must be founded on principles of civility and honesty.”
For information about the series, call (203) 977-5115 or register online at https://civilityinamerica.smartevents.com/ <https://civilityinamerica.smartevents.com/
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