{This month features President of Sarah Lawrence College, Karen Lawrence.  A noted scholar of James Joyce, holding a B.A. from Yale University, a Master of Arts in English Literature from Tufts University, and a Ph.D. in literature from Columbia University, she has been at Sarah Lawrence since 2007.}

Describe yourself in one word:        

Short

To date, what do you consider your greatest accomplishment?    

Professionally– securing funding for and establishing the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine, and recruiting the Kenyan writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o to direct it.   Personally–Andrew and Jeffrey Lawrence.

What or whom has been your greatest source of inspiration?

Many people have inspired me.  If I had to name one person, it would probably be Bobby Kennedy.

What quality in others do you find the most admirable? 

Courage

What quality in others do you find the most deplorable? 

 The inability to empathize.

What are your three favorite texts? 

Middlemarch, Ulysses, “Sailing to Byzantium”

If you could spend one day in history, when and where would it be?

 June 16, 1904.  I’ll let you guess why.

Finish the thought:  “Feminism is . . .”  

still necessary.

 

What is something about you others would be surprised to know?  

I enjoy kickboxing.

 

What are your words to live by?  

 “Try to be someone on whom nothing is lost” Henry James