“I am a complete problem-solving junkie,” Farley said. “I really love solving problems.”

That’s one of the messages he plans to share with Class of 2026 graduating seniors as the Georgetown University ������Ƶ & Sciences on Saturday, May 16, at Healy Lawn, where he will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. 

“I hope our graduates will be inspired by Jim’s story,” said , the dean of the ������Ƶ & Sciences. “I hope they will see the empowerment that comes with a Georgetown degree, and I hope they will imagine for themselves a life of leadership and service.”

Farley, who has worked for Ford since 2007 and has led the company since 2020, graduated from the College in 1985 with an economics degree. His father, James D. Farley (SFS’50) earned a degree from the School of Foreign Service in 1950, and Farley also met his wife, Cornelia “Lia” Connor-Farley (C’87), while they were students. Farley said in a recent interview with the College that the Jesuit liberal arts education he received at Georgetown helped him develop an affinity for problem solving and the curiosity required to find solutions.

“Most of life and the satisfaction of life can be greatly enhanced by a conscious decision to fall in love with problem solving and to develop your own framework for solving problems that’s personalized for you based on the foundation at Georgetown,” Farley said of his advice for students. “So get ready, because the world needs problem solvers.”

A Sense of Curiosity

Farley’s life on the Hilltop was different from a lot of his peers. 

Aside from his first year, Farley said that he worked 20 to 40 hours every week as a student. One of those jobs was on Capitol Hill, before he switched his major from government to economics. 

Farley also loved cars. Most of his friends, he said, didn’t care for them and viewed cars simply as transportation. At Georgetown, Farley drove a 1965 Ford Mustang, the same car he used to drive across the country when he was a teenager. His grandfather, Emmet E. Tracy, started working , and Farley would often visit him in Michigan during school breaks, where they bonded over their love of cars.

“I love cars because they’re very complicated consumer products,” Farley said. “They’re an experiential product. You can see the world on your computer, but you experience it in a car.”

At Georgetown, he learned from his professors, many of them Jesuit priests, that curiosity and discernment are essential qualities for problem solving. He marveled that his Jesuit professors taught students about religions outside of Catholicism. His professors, Farley noted, wanted the students to think for themselves, rather than be told what to believe.

“Jesuits, to me, are exceptional in their sense of curiosity — around faith, around theology, around philosophies of life,” Farley said. “They don’t want us to be some Catholic robot who goes to church to see other people. They want our faith to be authentic and our connection with our religion to be a conscious choice in the face of other religious choices.”

His time on the Hilltop also reinforced the role of discernment in his life. Having good judgement, Farley said, is often informed by optimism through faith but also mistakes and miscalculations. Discernment, to Farley, requires deeply processing the events in life, and mistakes can often be a gift.

“Often the most valuable inputs to making a decision are the mistakes that you’ve made,” he said. “I think discernment is mission critical, as is being decisive and the other elements of the St. Ignatius framework for solving problems.”

One of Farley’s favorite professors was Jan Karski, a Polish World War II hero, spy and diplomat who served against Nazi Germany and provided early reports on Nazi atrocities to the Western Allies. Karski, who died in 2000 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, taught international relations at Georgetown for more than 40 years.

“I found the intensity of his life and the problem solving to be very refreshing,” Farley said. “He was one of the best problem solvers I’ve ever met.”

Run Toward Problems

Throughout Farley’s career, he’s been drawn to the hardest roles. 

“For whatever reason, whenever anyone said to me, career-wise, ‘Don’t go over there, because there’s a very high likelihood that it will not work out,’ I ran to those opportunities,” he said. “It wasn’t like I was taking an unconsidered risk. It’s just that I was always attracted to the gnarliest, most real-world problem.”

That happened at Toyota, where he spent nearly 20 years in product planning, marketing and advertising roles. He served as vice president and general manager of the company’s Lexus group and guided the successful launch of the Scion brand. He was also tapped to be the general manager of product management of Toyota Motor Europe.

“There was no template,” Farley said. “We couldn’t copy anyone, and all those experiences I had to kind of make it up by problem solving.”

Before becoming CEO at Ford, Farley was the company’s chief operating officer and he previously served as Ford’s president of new businesses, technology and strategy and the executive vice president and president of global markets, . 

“You should run towards hairy, nasty problems and not away from them,” Farley said.

He also looks for ways to volunteer his time in service of others. In Detroit, he raised $30 million as the campaign chair to develop the , a transition center for people experiencing homelessness.

In reflecting on his time at Georgetown, Farley said that the greatest gift of being on the Hilltop was meeting his wife, Lia. “She’s been the best partner I could ever have,” he said. “She inspires me and keeps me humble every day.”

Farley still keeps in contact with friends he made at Georgetown — a group of former roommates he affectionately calls “my crew.” Hang on to those relationships, Farley said.

“I imagine that as the graduating seniors look around, I wouldn’t be surprised that many of them have their own crew,” he said. “They will cherish those friendships as much or maybe more than almost any academic experience they’ve had, as they should.”

(Top image courtesy of Ford)

“Because what it tends to suggest when someone says you can do anything with something is that it also means you can do nothing with it,” Hensley said.

It helps to have concrete examples of what English majors are doing with their careers. That’s why the English department posts on its website and launched an events series last month called, “The English Major in the World.” 

As the use of artificial intelligence rises, recent suggest that demand for humanities majors, like English, is increasing, as organizations look for graduates with creative and critical thinking skills. “The capacity for authentic thought is turning out to be an incredibly marketable skill,” Hensley said.

This new events series aims to lean into those strengths. 

“Part of the purpose for this series is to give some concrete specificity to the kind of life plots that are available to people who come out of Georgetown with an English degree,” Hensley said. “And the truth of the matter is that those life plots are incredibly varied, all incredibly dynamic and they really range widely, but each one of them is very specific and real.”

A Diverse Range of Careers

The inaugural event in February featured a talk between , the Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism, and Aiden Johnson (C’19), an English alum who works as a senior producer at BBC Studios. 

The next event is scheduled for April 9 and will be a conversation with Corrigan; Kitty Eisele, a podcast producer and former longtime NPR journalist; and Kate Rosenberger, a senior talent recruiter and audible lead for The Great Courses. The plan is to host one to two “English Major in the World” events per semester, Hensley said.

“We hope this will become an ongoing series to really be able to start telling the story of the range and diversity of career outcomes that our students are able to have,” he said.

This series was born out of conversations between Hensley, Corrigan, , a professor and chair of the Department of English, and , the dean of the ������Ƶ & Sciences. 

Corrigan had already been moderating a public humanities events series with authors and thought about finding additional ways to help English students think about their career paths.

“I really do believe you can do anything with an English degree,” Corrigan said. “I really do believe that humanities degrees don’t age. You gain a wealth of knowledge from close reading and literary history and familiarity with some of the best that’s been known and thought in the world. That will take you places.”

Johnson, who majored in English and minored in journalism, took “five or six classes” with Corrigan and estimates that he spent roughly half of his English major with her. Corrigan’s courses, Johnson said, helped him learn to “think in a clear way that wasn’t necessarily limiting.”

“I always felt like her classes were built upon this social contract that if you are engaged and invested and curious and willing to participate, you won’t get penalized for trying something new and seeing if it works,” Johnson said.

In his senior producer role at BBC Studios, Johnson supports BBC’s talent strategy and content production in the United States. He also works closely with BBC broadcaster Katty Kay and helps produce her interviews, specials and reported features. That includes writing memos, briefs and scripts.

The main thing that his English degree has taught him, Johnson said, is how to “tell a good story, hear a good story and understand what a good story is.” That means being able to read and synthesize information and explain why it’s relevant and important to people, he said.

English Majors Are Everywhere

Corrigan wants students to know that in today’s unpredictable world and job market, it’s an advantage to have an English degree. She hopes this series empowers them.

“There’s no ‘X equals Y’ clear path, but I think that by giving our students kind of a menu of possibilities over the next few years and hearing how people got the positions that they’re in, that maybe it will help give them some practical ideas,” Corrigan said. “It will also help embolden them to believe in their degree and to believe in themselves.”

English majors are everywhere. Hensley said he has seen graduates go on to work in education, journalism and media, government, marketing and publication relations, the entertainment industry, law, finance, consulting and nongovernmental organizations, among other industries.

Hensley said he has also observed that with the rise of algorithmic language engines, critical thinking skills and the ability to create authentic connections are increasingly more valuable. 

“CEOs all over America are increasingly desperate to recruit and retain people who have done the work that enables them to be real thinkers,” he said.

For Corrigan, learning and teaching the humanities are essential to living; it’s like breathing. There’s a certain transcendence, she said, to “having so much great art in your head.” 

“The humanities is life,” Corrigan said. “I feel like it’s my secular religion. I really do. I feel like I don’t think I could get through the day without the voices of amazing writers that I have in my head, who are constantly in my brain, commenting or helping me see things that I would otherwise not notice. I think that those writers give me a sense of possibility and communion beyond my day-to-day life.”

The past two decades of recovery have brought sweeping changes to New Orleans, as rising prices and unequal recovery have extended the effects of the flood.

This October, 20 years later, Georgetown University hosted the , sponsored by the and . The event reflected on the legacy of the disaster from an interdisciplinary perspective and through the lens of environmental justice. 

The symposium focused on how “the residents of New Orleans and their partners … are working with imagination and creativity and brilliance to address and create conditions for justice at a community level,” said (C’90, G’91), an associate dean in the ������Ƶ & Sciences and founding director of the .��

Preserving Community and Culture

The symposium was the second of its kind. In 2015, Georgetown’s Film and Media Studies Program held the Katrina@10 Symposium, which featured panels, film screenings and a musical performance that explored the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on memory, culture and social justice in New Orleans. 

The symposium this year began with a screening of , a film about preserving community and culture in the aftermath of Katrina, held at both the Hilltop and Capitol campuses. 

The program continued later in the week with two panels, split up by a musical performance by , a 2022 NEA Jazz Master and Grammy-nominated saxophonist from New Orleans, in the McNeir Auditorium.

The first panel, The Wild, Wild Creation: New Orleans Living Culture as Recovery and Resistance, was led by Cook and featured Harrison, , an artist, educator and , and , a professor in the Department of Black Studies.

The panelists discussed New Orleans as the heart of Caribbean and American culture, the intersection of Black performance and protest, the difficulties of sustaining a living culture during displacement — especially for Black, working-class New Orleanians — and the impacts of environmental injustice and racism. 

“Katrina happened, but it didn’t happen to everyone in the same ways,” Cook said during the panel. 

Harrison spoke about the historic importance of , a place in the city where enslaved people would congregate on Sundays that is now famous for its jazz music. 

“One of the things about Congo Square was to keep the music alive so that you could have some kind of connection,” Harrison said. “It’s an ancestral place.”

The second panel, New Orleans Community-Based Innovation and Alternative Visions for the Future, was led by , an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and author of Gardens of Hope: Cultivating Food and the Future in a Post-Disaster City. It featured , founder of the , , a sociologist, artist and activist, and , the executive director of the . 

The discussion covered the challenges and opportunities in community organizing and re-building during the 20 years since Katrina. The panelists also spoke about barriers faced by Black communities in New Orleans, as well as their achievements. Successes have included Mwendo’s Backyard Gardeners Network, which has worked to strengthen the 9th Ward of New Orleans, the , which a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in 2017 and the , the first community land trust in New Orleans which was founded by griffin. 

“Inequality is spatialized within a built environment,” said griffin. “We see it all the time, but it doesn’t always resonate. So social and economic inequality, we can see it within a built environment. So if it’s structurally or architecturally designed, it can be structurally and architecturally un���������Ա��.”

A Necessary Reflection

For many undergraduate students, Hurricane Katrina happened a lifetime ago — or even before they were born.

The Katrina@20 Symposium served to remind the Georgetown community of the lasting impacts of the disaster that are still felt today. 

The city of New Orleans has helped shape America and is crucial in the connection between the United States, the Caribbean and Central and Latin America. Katrina and its aftermath revealed how catastrophes often have unequal impacts on Americans, as working class and Black residents of New Orleans were unevenly impacted during and after the disaster. 

Continuing the discussion of Katrina is key to remembering these lessons.

“It’s still extremely important for America and the world, but for Americans especially to understand what happened, what it revealed, how its effects were unevenly felt, how poor people, working-class Black folks and others, had a much more difficult time recovering,” Cook said.

Photos by Nate Findlay (C’27) and Francesca Scovino (C’27).

“The students we are celebrating today have shown dedication to their craft, passion for their subjects and determination to hone their technical and analytical skills,” Andrew Sobanet, the interim dean of the ������Ƶ & Sciences, said during the ceremony. “By simply doing the work that led to their invitation here today, students have already earned the best possible reward.”

This year’s honorees included Dhruvi Banerjee (C’25), recipient of the Coakley Medal; (C’25), who received the Katherine Kraft Medal; and (C’25), winner of the Louis McCahill Award. 

(C’25) received the Lambert H. Spronck Medal, awarded to the student who combines good scholarship with significant contributions to extracurricular activities and a spirit of giving. Riley Talbot (C’25) was honored with the Loyola Medal, given to the graduating senior who best exemplifies Catholic and Jesuit ideals in their collegiate life. Tiffany Zhang (C’25) delivered the Cohonguroton address, and both  and received the Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence. 

The full list of award winners is below.

Dhruvi Banerjee, Coakley Medal

For Banerjee, an education at Georgetown is rooted in cura personalis – a Jesuit value that means “care for the whole person.” His time on the Hilltop, he said, taught him the importance of understanding the lived experience of others.

Driven by an interest in the intersection of health and culture, Banerjee majored in anthropology and minored in (STIA) with a concentration in global health and biotechnology. Faculty members have praised Banerjee’s deep commitment to ethnographic research of public health, especially his focus on caring for patients diagnosed with incurable diseases. 

“People are what matter in the end, and meeting others where they are is the best start,” Banerjee said. “The Georgetown education I have received has shown me the importance of always being humble and compassionate in whatever work I find myself completing.”

As a sophomore, Banerjee was accepted into the for Georgetown School of Medicine as a Joseph Sweeney, S.J. Scholar. He will begin medical school this August. 

Outside of his studies, Banerjee worked for (GUNCR) in the Department of Neurology. He assisted clinical research coordinators with existing trials from pharmaceutical companies, specifically working with patients with neuromuscular conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 

Banerjee was also heavily involved with , a fully-volunteer, student-run EMS agency serving Georgetown and the surrounding neighborhoods. 

The Coakley Medal was established by Elizabeth Coakley in memory of her husband, Henry “Hank” Coakley, a class of 1941 Georgetown alumnus and U.S. Air Force pilot who died in World War II. The award is presented to a ������Ƶ & Sciences senior who has displayed qualities of loving service, honor and courage.

Lisa Kennedy, Katherine Kraft Medal

Growing up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, a city with a population of approximately 8,000 people, Kennedy was told that if she wanted to be successful, she would have to leave her rural hometown. 

But her time at Georgetown has made Kennedy realize that towns like Rhinelander are not a place to leave behind. They’re places she wants to serve. 

“What was driving me to go to college was I wanted to advocate for people who have often gone overlooked. I felt like we had been overlooked, and that resulted in a lot of resentment,” . “I understand why people feel that way, but I think there’s real value in rural places and rural people. I wanted to change that narrative when I felt that change in myself when I came to college.”

Kennedy, an American studies major, has received numerous undergraduate honors, including the , Royden B. Davis Fellowship, , , , and .

For Laidlaw, Kennedy studied the rates at which Georgetown recruited and admitted applicants from rural areas. She formed and led the (GU STARS), a community and informative platform for small town and rural Georgetown students. 

This fall, Kennedy will start her master’s program in U.S. history at the University of Oxford as part of the . 

Cornelia Kraft McKee established the Kraft Medal in memory of her mother, Katherine Kraft, and the award is given to the student who best manifests a spirit of humility, cooperation and commitment as a person for others.

Evan Bianchi, Louis McCahill Award

Bianchi discovered she had a learning disability at a young age. As a result, she said, she received the necessary accommodations and support early on, which not only enabled her to achieve academically but maintain her love of learning.

That experience influenced her research at Georgetown. 

During her first year, Bianchi attended an alternative spring break trip to Appalachia, where rural kindergarten teachers spoke about the importance of early childhood education. 

When she returned from Georgetown, she joined the university’s (CDSP). There, she learned that public pre-K students often outperform their Head Start peers in kindergarten. 

Bianchi wondered why, and for her psychology honors thesis, Bianchi examined whether the disruption of switching schools, which is required for Head Start students, might be a factor. She found a range of negative effects on students’ social and emotional development following a school transition. The results suggested that co-locating public pre-K classrooms in elementary schools could better support low-income children.

Bianchi, a psychology major with a minor in disability studies, was named a 2024 Provost’s Distinguished Undergraduate Research Fellow, and her early education research won first place at the in New York. Outside of her research, Bianchi has worked with (FOCI) through the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. 

After graduation, Bianchi will conduct psychology research at Children’s National Hospital before pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. 

The McCahill Award was established in 1960 by Eugene McCahill and Francis McCahill in memory of their brother, Louis, who died in service during the First World War. It is given to the student who has shown perseverance and determination of a high order in pursuing educational objectives at Georgetown.

Tiffany Zhang, Cohonguroton Address

Zhang, a double-major in biology and American musical cultures, was selected to give the Cohonguroton address. 

“Cohonguroton” is an Algonquin word for the Potomac River that roughly translates to “river of swans.” The address is considered a symbolic “swan song” delivered by a member of the graduating class.

Zandria Robinson and Alexandra DeCandia, Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence

Robinson, , and DeCandia, , received the Bunn award, which is determined by a direct vote from the senior class.

Established in 1967 by the College Student Council in honor of Father Bunn, the award is presented to faculty members in the ������Ƶ & Sciences, who, in the eyes of the senior class, are admired and respected for their services to Georgetown in the classroom and campus community.

Departmental Awards

• Mary Catherine Mita Award: Lisa Kennedy (given to an American Studies Program student)
• Alma Thomas & Bruce Nugent Award in Black Studies: Rams-Lyne Thomas
• Clifford T. Chieffo Award: Sarah Pedley (given to a studio arts major student)
• Leo Doran Award for Art History: Chloe Potamianos-Homem
• Kircher Medal: Tiffany Zhang (given to an American musical cultures major student)
• Davis Medal: Katherine Martinez (given to a theater and performance studies major student)
• Outstanding Senior in English Award: Daniella Arevalo
• Outstanding Senior Award in Women’s & Gender Studies: Emily Kalyvas
• Founder Mark Lance Award: Julianne Meneses (given to a Justice and Peace Studies Program student)
• Senior Award for Outstanding Research in Anthropology: Dhruvi Banerjee
• B.J. Phoenix Medal: Reed Uhlik (given to an economics major student)
• Father Robert Hoggson, S.J. Award for Excellence in Sociology: Francin Vasquez
• Ryan Medal: Jackson Karas (given to a philosophy major student)
• Department of Government Award: Ruowei Yu
• Morris Historical Medal: Jackson Karas (given to a history major student)
• Sebastian Brenninkmeyer Medal for Uncommon Accomplishment in Psychology: Bijan Tabrizian
• Brennan Medal: Nami Bolat (given to a theology and religious studies student)
• Horace Medal: Nathaniel Ting (given to a student for proficiency in both oral and written translation of the odes of Horace)
• E. Joseph McCarthy Award: Nami Bolat (given to a French and francophone studies major student)
• George M. Roth Award: Alexandra Roe (given to a German major student)
• Global and Comparative Literature Award: Audrey Sun
• Dante Award: William DiGiovanni (given to an Italian major student)
• St. Francis Xavier Award: Isabel Asker (given to a Japanese major student)
• Eric Duffell Class of 1996 Dobro Slovo Award for Achievement in Russian Language, Literature and Culture: Adriane Longhurst (given to a student in the Department of Slavic Languages)
• Coutinho Medal: Cameryn James (given to a Portuguese major student)
• Caíno Medal for Achievement in Spanish: Cody Slutzky
• Francis P. Dinneen Award for Distinction in Linguistics: Ifeoluwaposimi John-Idiagbonya
• Miljevic Chemistry Award: Tessa Block
• Kidwell Medal: Arden Dombalagian (given by the Department of Physics)
• Henry M. Leslie Award: Jonathan Riess (given to a Mathematics student)
• Computer Science Award: Reed Uhlik
• Edward L. Mahoney Medal: Ella Boasberg (given to a senior pre-medical student for outstanding achievement in the humanities)
• Dr. Michael Barrette Medal: Lili Rodgers (given to a pre-medical or pre-dental student)
• Biology Award: Tiffany Zhang
• Biology of Global Health Award: Dua Mobin
• Environmental Biology Award: Catherine Dell’Olio
• Neurobiology Award: Alexandria Sorensen
• Thomas Francis Graham Award: Owen Carapellotti (given to a senior who has demonstrated concern for others, academic achievement and sportsmanship as a member of an intercollegiate team)

College-Wide Awards

• Lambert H. Spronck Medal: Jaden Cobb
• Louis McCahill Award: Evan Bianchi
• Katherine Kraft Medal: Lisa Kennedy
• Coakley Medal: Dhruvi Banerjee
• Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence: Zandria Robinson, Alexandra DeCandia

(Photos of the ceremony by John McDonnell for Georgetown University)

The ministers of the recently re-formed power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland visited the United States for St. Patrick’s Day to meet with President Joe Biden and strengthen their relationships with partners in the country. 

“We have a strong relationship with the United States and this week, our focus will be on showcasing Northern Ireland as a compelling investment opportunity and highlighting the many benefits of doing business here,” said O’Neill in a prepared statement.

From Resolution to Rejuvenation

Joel Hellman, dean of the School of Foreign Service, introduced the event, noting Georgetown’s reputation as a center for the study of post-conflict resolution.

“Through difficult times, Northern Ireland has prevailed, thrived and continued to offer the world a road map on how to negotiate a lasting peace,” Hellman said. “We know here at Georgetown — thanks especially to the work of our Institute for Women, Peace and Security — that there is no lasting peace without women at the table. Today, we are excited to hear from two women who are not only at the table but at the head of it about their hopes and plans for building a better Northern Ireland.”

The conversation was moderated by , an associate professor of government at American University. The talk, before a packed audience of visiting dignitaries, esteemed faculty, and engaged students, began with a reflection on the legacy of the past and ventured into visions of the future.   

Both O’Neill and Little-Pengelly grew up as children in a zone of conflict, and their adult lives have been defined by the fragile peace ushered in by the Good Friday Agreement. 

“We have been a society that, despite an eagerness to move on, is dragged down by the unfinished threads of the past, the legacy of issues not yet resolved,” said Little-Pengelly. “We are at this moment of incredible opportunity where people have this huge eagerness to look to the future now despite the, in Maya Angelou’s words, ‘wrenching pain’ of the past that ‘cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.’” 

O’Neill, the first nationalist First Minister in Northern Ireland’s history, reflected on coming from a different political party and a different personal background than Little-Pengelly. Despite their differences, she affirmed, they are united in the hope of achieving tangible changes for the people of Northern Ireland. 

“Emma and I are the epitome of the Good Friday Agreement ourselves because we come from two very different backgrounds, two very different lived experiences,” said O’Neill. “If we’re going to be successful into the future and ensure that today’s generation is not burdened by yesterday’s, then we need to properly deal with the past and find ways to heal wounds.” 

O’Neill and Little-Pengelly visited the Hilltop last year for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, participating in an event with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Reflecting on their personal lives and the history of Northern Ireland, they situated the recently-formed government in a pivotal location – a quarter of a century away from conflict and determined to build another quarter of a century of peace and prosperity. 

“I hope that Michelle and I can bridge that transition, between some of the remaining threads of the past that sometimes wind themselves around and bring down our institutions and move to 25 years of building success and prosperity,” said Little-Pengelly. 

In addition to the First Minister and deputy First Minister, both Junior Ministers in the Executive, Aislin Reilly and Pam Cameron, are also female. The conversation turned to the role of women in leadership positions. 

“Women being in leadership roles is undoubtedly important for the framework that it provides for people to see what that can be, but more than that we want to deliver,” said Little-Pengelly. “No matter what the symbolism of women in leadership roles, we want to deliver.”

The event was organized by three on-campus programs, , the and the , in collaboration with off-campus partners, the Washington Ireland Program, the John & Pat Hume Foundation, the Northern Ireland Office, the Northern Ireland Bureau and the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland.

The event marked the second annual meeting of the Washington Forum on Northern Ireland, a joint project of Georgetown University, American University and Ulster University. Watch the full conversation . 

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Organized by , the , the and others, each year the series brings together a slate of lectures, screenings and events that probe the “intersection of science, the humanities and the arts that link environmental journalism, literary writing, activist performance and critical approaches to climate change, the environment and language.”

Bringing Ghosh to the Hilltop was a cross-campus initiative that involved several schools, departments, institutes and programs. , the Inaugural Director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, spoke to the gathered crowd. 

“We could not have a more inspiring keynote speaker with us today than Amitav Ghosh to address the many facets of our planetary and environmental crisis,” said Pireddu. “In his fiction and nonfiction writings, his stories and imagination show us the interconnectedness of our past, present and future. They help us recover lost meanings that are vital to humanity. They allow us to see and foresee responsibilities, potentialities and risks. They teach us that life on our planet relies on the entanglement between the human and the nonhuman.” 

Rosario Ceballo, Dean of the ������Ƶ & Sciences, introduced Ghosh to the assembled audience. 

“Ghosh’s work spans many genres, with the inclusion of history, politics and science,” said Ceballo. “Events like these, much like Ghosh’s work itself, are testaments to the centrality and the power of the humanities. These are celebrations of imagination, of the way imagination opens us up to face enduring challenges and new solutions with empathy, with insight, history, narrative and journeys across time.”

The Nutmeg’s Curse

Ghosh, known for his groundbreaking novels and non-fiction works, blends stylistic and genre boundaries to explore the complex interplay between the climate crisis and the lasting legacy of colonialism. His most recent book, The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, traces 400 years of the production of nutmeg and mace, from the promise of prosperity to the mass murder and plunder of colonialism to the impacts of the climate crisis. 

“The story of the Bandalese no longer seems so distant from our present predicament,” intoned Ghosh. “The continuities between the two are so pressing and so powerful that it could even be said that the fate of the Banda islands might be read as a template for the present.”

For Ghosh, the Banda Islands, a remote cluster of land in the Banda Sea, elucidate much of what is threatening the world. Rich soil, fertilized by volcanic ash, led to lush forests that provided the fertile breeding ground for the evolution of nutmeg and mace. The resulting centuries of bloodshed, strife and extraction are lessons that cannot be forgotten. 

“Humanity is today even more dependent on botanical matter than it was,” said Ghosh. “The idea that modern man has freed himself from the planet is not just absurd – it’s a dangerous delusion.” 

After the keynote lecture, Ghosh spoke with Rabih Alameddine, an acclaimed writer and painter, and Ashanee Kottage (SFS’22), a Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at the Earth Commons and the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. In the fall, Alameddine will begin his three-year appointment as the Lannan Foundation Visiting Chair. 

Bringing Ghosh to campus was a collaborative effort between the aforementioned groups and the , the , the , the , the , and the .  

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