UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — “Celebrate the Humanities” is the theme of the Penn State Humanities Institute's annual lecture and alumni award presentation taking place at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 31, in the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus. A reception will immediately follow the Annual Celebration, which is free and open to the public.
Sara Guyer, professor of English and Irving and Jean Stone Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, Berkley, will deliver this year’s lecture, titled “Persistence: A Strategy from the Humanities.” Drawing upon research from the “World Humanities Report,” a large-scale project under Guyer’s tutelage that examines the relevance and influence of the humanities throughout the world, Guyer’s talk will focus on the forms of persistence in the humanities and the social impact of universities — and the humanities in particular — in a moment when their impact is sometimes called into question.
Rónké A. Òké, who received her doctorate in philosophy from Penn State in 2015, will receive the Humanities Institute’s 2025 Outstanding Alumni Award during the Annual Celebration. Òké is a strategist, workplace culture expert and advocate for “worth ethic,” which focuses on redefining success for individuals and organizations. She has held several leadership roles in academia and in the corporate and nonprofit sectors since leaving Penn State, providing strategic guidance to organizations seeking to foster inclusive and high-performance cultures. She currently serves as CEO of RAO Consultants, which she founded to help businesses align values, purpose and performance for sustainable impact.
The Humanities Institute is dedicated to supporting the generation and promotion of ideas in all aspects of the humanities and related disciplines. The Annual Celebration is just one of the institute’s many events and activities designed to showcase the social value of the humanities and publicize the role that humanities-focused scholarship plays in addressing the most pressing questions of our time.
Contact the Humanities Institute’s director, John Christman, at 814-865-0495 or jpc11@psu.edu for additional information about the institute and its Annual Celebration.