In a press release dated Jan. 16, the college announced that Christopher Benfey, ’77, will be the guest speaker at this year’s commencement ceremonies
“I was thrilled and floored [when I received the news],” Benfey said. “It’s not the kind of thing you expect … and the idea of addressing Guilford grads is a bit intimidating.”
Benfey is a professor of American literature at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. He established himself as an Emily Dickinson scholar with the works Emily Dickinson and the Problem of Others in 1984 and Emily Dickinson: Lives of a Poet in 1986. He also wrote about little-known aspects of the life and work of Impressionist artist Edgar Degas in Degas in New Orleans in 1997, which gained critical acclaim and was named one of the 10 most important books of the year by the Chicago Tribune.
Benfey’s most recent work, The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan, was named one of 2003’s “notable books” by The New York Times.
Benfey has close ties to the college. He graduated in 1977 with a B.A. in French. His mother is an alumna from 1948, and his father was the Dana Professor of Chemistry and History of Science from 1978-88.
“I like the idea that I was some kind of ‘legacy student,’ since my mother went to Guilford, too,” Benfey said. “I had a tight circle of friends at Guilford that clustered around Mary Hobbs … I wrote for The Guilfordian. Jerry Godard inspired me to become a college professor.”
Benfey was chosen as the speaker through the college’s Commencement and Celebrations committee. The faculty, staff, and students on that committee solicited suggestions from their peers, and nine names were collected. In addition to Benfey, notable figures such as Derrick Bell, the first tenured African American professor of law at Harvard University, Duke University President Nan Keohane, and writer, teacher, and performer, Alena Hairston, ’96, were nominated.
Ballots were then distributed to seniors, faculty, and staff in November via the Guilford Buzz. Only 40 ballots were received.
A petition was circled suggesting Mab Segrest, queer political activist, as guest speaker. However, this sentiment was expressed after the nomination deadline passed.
“I suggested that Chris be our speaker because he is probably the most distinguished professor to have graduated Guilford in the past thirty years,” professor of philosophy Jonathan Malino said. “He has an extremely wide-ranging mind, and the rave reviews of his books note the imaginative and interdisciplinary character of his thinking. To me, he exemplifies the kind of learning Guilford seeks to provide its students.”
Benfey has not yet decided what the topic of his speech will be.
“My gut feeling about the talk, which I have not yet written, is that we live-as the Chinese curse puts it-in interesting times,” Benfey said. “Our sense of the fragility of culture post 9/11 has made many of us turn with renewed commitment and need to the arts.”
“He is an excellent choice given his international reputation as a scholar and teacher in addition to his long term individual and family connections with Guilford College,” College President Kent Chabotar said of Benfey.
Three students will also be chosen to speak alongside Benfey at this year’s commencement. Ballots to nominate seniors will be available in early February, and ballots will be cast on Feb. 24.
The process for selection of next year’s commencement speaker will begin soon, and be concluded by the end of the term. Suggestions for guest speakers can be e-mailed to Anne Lundquist at [email protected].