Convocation with Neil Lutsky

Neil Lutsky, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Psychology, is the speaker for the Argument and Inquiry Seminar Convocation. The goal of this year’s talk is to raise questions students can take back to their seminars and conversations on what it means to take a liberal arts approach to learning at Carleton, your “Way Home” or shelter for the next four years. The presentation will highlight the worthy strangeness of what we do at the College as we together seek knowledge, skills and habits, purpose and values, and fortitude to help shape our lives and the world around us. Lutsky, a first generation college graduate, was supposed to become a lawyer and, in preparation, earned a B.S. degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He decided instead to teach, was selected a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and completed a Ph.D. in Psychology at Harvard University. At Carleton his courses include Social Psychology, Personality, Positive Psychology, the Psychology of Endings, and his A&I seminar Measured Thinking. Lutsky has also held visiting appointments at Stanford University, Ashoka University in India, and DIS in Copenhagen. He is the recipient of the American Psychological Foundation’s Charles Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology award, of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring prize, and, most improbably, of a blue ribbon for jam at the Minnesota State Fair. This is his 48th year at Carleton. The title of his presentation is "Shelter from the Storms: Your Way Home in the Liberal Arts".