Reading is a Life or Death Decision: Why Dante Always Matters

In this flourishing society dinner lecture, novelist and professor Randy Boyagoda (University of Toronto) will make a case for why who and what we read can be life or death decisions. He will do so by exploring signal moments in Dante’s Divine Comedy where the life of faith, life of the mind, and life of action all depend, with the highest possible stakes, on the decisions individuals make about who and what they read, how, and why. In turn, having read a canto a day of the Divine Comedy for the past five years while writing a Dante-inspired novel, he will read from his latest book, about ordinary people whose lives have been radically changed by the books they took up and read at high and low points in their lives. 

Please register promptly if you wish to attend, as space is limited. Last day of registration is Thursday, March 24th.

Speaker

Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as Vice-Dean, Undergraduate, in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He is the author of six books, including four novels, most recently Dante’s Indiana (2021). He writes essays and reviews for the New York Times, the Atlantic, First Things, and the Financial Times (UK). He lives in Toronto with his wife and four daughters.

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Please see the Stanford Faculty Club policy here: https://facultyclub.stanford.edu/policies

The Stanford Faculty Club requires all guests visiting the club to be fully vaccinated and prepared to show proof and ID during check in. Children 12 and under must show a negative Covid 19 test within 3 days of entering the facility.

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