Robert L. Belknap University Seminars records, 9999

In the nineteen thirties, Professor Frank Tannenbaum had discussed with Nicholas Murray Butler the idea of ongoing groups of Columbia professors and experts from the whole region to explore matters no single department had the breadth or the agility to study. Butler liked the idea as a quick way to mobilize the intellectual resources of the University about suddenly emerging problems, but World War II supervened and it was 1944 before his successor, Frank Fackenthal, approved the first five University Seminars. Three of these seminars still meet: Peace, Religion, and The Renaissance.

Rober Belknap was a member of several seminars including Literary Theory; Slavic History and Culture; and the History of Columbia University was Director from 2001 to 2011 and our official historian since last year. He both shaped and embodied the ethics of the Seminars movement: to disagree without rancor; to listen before speaking; to seek the truth among peers without the encumbrance of hierarchy; to operate with both modesty and integrity; and above all to be driven by one's curiosity.