Commencement Kickoff: Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises

With poet Albert Goldbarth and orator James Engell, Gurney professor of English literature and professor of comparative literature

Our Commencement coverage begins with the Phi Beta Kappa service, featuring poet Albert Goldbarth and Gurney professor of English literature and professor of comparative literature James Engell. 

The Sanders Theatre event honors graduating seniors who have been inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement.

Click here for a list this year's Phi Beta Kappa graduates. Listen here to last year's Phi Beta Kappa address, by Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, formerly Higgins professor of physics at Harvard. At the 2007 event, C.D. Wright (Guggenheim Fellow, MacArthur Fellow, and professor of English at Brown University) read one of her poems, and Jeremy Waldron, University Professor at the New York University School of Law, explored the Bill of Rights in the context of the international movement to secure universal human rights through the actions of individual countries. Hear Wright read here and Waldron's speech here.

Most popular

Why Men Are Falling Behind in Education, Employment, and Health

Can new approaches to education address a growing gender gap?

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Teen "Grind" Culture and Mental Health

Teens need better strategies to cope with lives lived partly online.

Explore More From Current Issue

Two bare-knuckle boxers fight in a ring, surrounded by onlookers in 19th-century attire.

England’s First Sports Megastar

A collection of illustrations capture a boxer’s triumphant moment. 

A football player kicking a ball while another teammate holds it on the field.

A Near-Perfect Football Season Ends in Disappointment

A loss to Villanova derails Harvard in the playoffs. 

A man skiing intensely in the snow, with two spectators in the background.

Introductions: Dan Cnossen

A conversation with the former Navy SEAL and gold-medal-winning Paralympic skier