The 21st Annual Hassett Reading will be “The Humanities, Education, and Democracy: A Conversation with Dame Louise Richardson, President of the Carnegie Corporation.”
The event will take place on Thursday, October 2, at 7:00 p.m. in the Montante Cultural Center.
Dame Louise Richardson was born and raised in County Waterford, Ireland, and earned a degree in history from Trinity College Dublin, the first in her family to attend university. She earned an MA in political science from UCLA and an MA and PhD in government from Harvard University. For 20 years she was a professor at Harvard, where her teaching and scholarship focused on the roots of international terrorism. In 2009, she became the first woman to serve as principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and in 2016, the first woman to lead Oxford University as vice-chancellor. In 2023, she became the 13th president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The Carnegie Corporation was established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace. As of September 30, 2024, the endowment value was $4.5 billion. During fiscal year 2023–2024, 353 grants were awarded for a total of $174 million.
Seating is limited: first come, first served, Doors open at 6:30. A reception will follow the conversation.
To watch a livestream of the event, email series coordinator Mick Cochrane, cochrane@canisius.edu, who will send you a link.
You can learn more about Dame Louise Richardson on the writers series website: www.canisius.edu/writers
Submitted by: Richard Bailey, PhD, associate dean, School of Arts & Social Sciences
The Office of University Communications is inviting faculty and staff to elevate their influence by sharing their insights and expertise with a broader audience. Our team has developed a database of Canisius individuals who have expertise on topics that may be of interest to local, regional and national media outlets.
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Marc Gatti ’16 recently published his first book, Existentialism is a Transhumanism: The Self-Made Species. The book aims to bring together two strands of contemporary philosophical thinking. Existentialism is a school of thought that proposes human beings are fundamentally free to create their own meaning and value. Transhumanism is a school of thought that proposes human beings ought to use emerging technologies to radically enhance human capabilities. Mr. Gatti explores the possibility of philosophical alignment for these ways of thinking, showing where they converge and where they diverge. The title is a play on words of a famous lecture, “Existentialism is a Humanism,” by the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.
Gatti was a computer science major and a philosophy minor at Canisius, and his book brings together these two disciplines in a engaging and provocative study. Gatti works for M&T bank in the areas of cybersecurity and software engineering.
Submitted by: Philip Reed, Professor of Philosophy
