Lambert, Dean's Professor of Humanities, to Focus on Advancing the CNY Humanities Corridor to the 'Next Level of Success'
Gregg Lambert, Dean’s Professor of the Humanities, has informed Karin Ruhlandt, interim dean of Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, that he has stepped down as founding director of the Syracuse University Humanities Center to focus solely on his continued leadership of the Central New York Humanities Corridor.
Since 2008, Lambert has served as director and principal investigator of the Corridor, which involves nine New York State institutions, including Cornell University and the University of Rochester. The Corridor is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The event in question was the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. The speaker that day was 79-year-old Nelson Mandela, who deemed it time to “redress the legacy of oppression.”
“[It] will be achieved by each of us respecting ourselves … and respecting the humanity in each one of us,” he told a rapt audience in the coastal town of East London. “It means an attitude of mind and a way of life that appreciates the joy in the honest labor of creating a new society.”
Mandela would retire from active political life less than three months later, but not before his Biko speech went down in history. Many consider it one of the high-water marks of his presidency.
