Carleton Convos

Chérif Keïta, William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts at Carleton, delivered the annual A&I Convocation on Friday, September 26, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. For first-year students, the A&I Convocation is an opportunity to actively engage in the convo tradition at Carleton while incorporating the address into their Argument and Inquiry (A&I) seminars. Moreover, it is an opportunity for some of Carleton’s most senior and beloved professors to share their perspectives on liberal arts education and offer advice on the process of learning. As a celebrated language and literature professor at Carleton since 1985, Keïta has a unique perspective to share. His address, “Northfield and/in South Africa in the 19th century,” will focus on how his being “found and chosen” by a Northfield-based story led to his past 26 years of research and filmmaking in South Africa. Keïta’s parents’ belief in his education resulted in Keïta attending a Catholic school in Bamako, Mali, near where he was born. Raised Muslim, Keïta credits his time at the Catholic school with widening the scope of his spiritualism and enriching his intellectual journey from a young age. While Keïta’s academic interest initially inspired a desire to study archaeology at the university level, the Malian government gave him an opportunity to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to study English and Russian translation instead. As his senior thesis, Keïta translated Paul Lewinson’s Race, Class, and Party: A History of Negro Suffrage and White Politics in the South, a book that played a role in Keïta’s intellectual journey to the United States. In 1978, Keïta came to the U.S. to pursue his PhD in romance languages and literatures, with a minor in African history and politics and a certificate in global policy studies. Studying at the University of Georgia–Athens allowed him to experience the southern U.S. and sparked his discovery of literature written in French by Africans and West Indians subject to French colonial domination. Many Septembers ago (40 Septembers, in fact), Keïta began his career at Carleton, with special interests including the novel and social change in Mali; oral tradition; and the relationship between music (traditional and modern), literature, and culture in Africa. He has since published multiple books and dozens of articles on Malian and African literature, music, and film, as well as on social and literary problems in contemporary Africa. Keïta is also an award-winning filmmaker, whose works have been shown on television and at film festivals across multiple continents. His latest documentary film, Namballa Keita: A Soldier and His Village, tells the story of his late father, a nurse and veteran of the French colonial army, who never had formal education but whose commitment to public education gave him national prominence in a newly independent Mali. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

The Carleton community gathered in the Chapel on Monday, September 15 at 3 p.m. for Opening Convocation, celebrating the start of a new academic year and recognizing students on the Dean’s List. Opening Convo is the first event in the convocation program and features the Bubble Brigade at the beginning and end, where Carleton seniors blow bubbles from the Chapel balcony over the faculty’s processional and recessional. Read more about the event on Carleton News.  Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Author Marie Myung-Ok Lee delivered Carleton’s convocation address on Friday, May 16, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her address is titled, “Acceptance vs. Belonging and the Life You Want to Live.” Lee’s novel Somebody’s Daughter (2005) was an O. Henry Award nominee and is celebrated as an important contribution to Korean American literature. She more recently published her second novel, The Evening Hero (2022), which The New York Times dubbed a “soulful, melodic, rhapsodic novel.” Beyond her writing for adults, Lee has written many beloved young adult (YA) novels under the name Marie G. Lee. Among these, her novel Finding My Voice (1992) is widely considered to be the first contemporary YA novel with an Asian American protagonist written by an Asian American. Lee’s Korean identity has been thoroughly explored throughout her writing career. She was the first Fulbright Scholar to Korea for creative writing. She is also one of only fifty writers ever granted a visa to North Korea as a journalist since the Korean War. Lee’s journalism — mostly in the form of stories and essays — has been featured in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, Salon, Guernica, and The Guardian, among others. Her work frequently engages with immigration, the effects of partition on Koreans and the Korean diaspora, and the hardship her mother endured to escape her war-torn homeland for a better life in the United States. Lee earned her BA from Brown University, where she was a writer-in-residence before beginning her current teaching career at Columbia University. She has been a Yaddo and MacDowell Colony fellow, in addition to receiving the Best Book Award from the Friends of American Writers, a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts fiction fellowship, and a New York Foundation for the Arts fiction fellowship. Furthermore, she has served as a judge for the National Book Award and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. She is also a founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Scott Wopata, executive director of the local Community Action Center (CAC) and recipient of the City of Northfield’s 2024 Human Rights Award, delivered the Carleton convocation on Friday, May 9, from 10:50 to 11:30 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. This convocation — titled, “Can we all agree to address food insecurity?” — coincides with Carleton’s annual Empty Bowls event, a community fundraiser for the local food shelf, which is run by the CAC.  In his more than twenty years living in Northfield, Wopata has worn many hats. His roles include community collaborator, economist, soccer coach, carpenter, youth pastor, trail runner (he is the fastest Minnesotan to run the Superior 100-mile trail race), and parent of four children. With this diverse range of experiences, Wopata now uses his skills at the CAC, a social justice organization serving more than 16,000 residents in Rice County that addresses needs ranging from food insecurity to accessing hygiene products. As the CAC’s executive director, Wopata emphasizes building community systems through partnership and collaboration with the very individuals who access them. He oversees a variety of programs, including food shelves, emergency shelters, environmental justice efforts, net-zero energy construction, and economic development. The CAC has received several honors, including the 2024 Minnesota Climate Adaptation Award for Climate Justice Leadership. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Attorney Anna McGinn ’18 delivered this week’s convocation address at Carleton titled, “In Defense of the Innocent” on Friday, May 2, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. McGinn’s work as a staff attorney at the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP) includes screening, investigating, and litigating cases involving claims of actual innocence in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Since joining GNIP in 2022, McGinn has played a key role in five cases in which individuals secured their freedom after being wrongfully convicted. Collectively, those individuals spent 62 years in prison. McGinn originally joined GNIP as a Bank of America legal fellow, a prestigious honor supporting scholars dedicated to working in social justice. In addition to her legal work, McGinn leads innocence clinics at law schools in Minnesota and South Dakota, helping train the next generation of legal professionals committed to justice. Founded in 2001, GNIP has dedicated itself to analyzing cases in which newly discovered evidence offers clear and convincing proof of actual innocence. To date, GNIP’s team of legal professionals has helped exonerate 13 individuals who collectively served 173 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Originally from Minnesota, McGinn graduated from Carleton in 2018 with a major in religion and minor in philosophy. She also competed on Carleton’s swim team. She went on to earn her JD from Notre Dame Law School. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Award-winning author David Wright Faladé ’86 delivered the Carleton convocation address — titled, “My 4-color Bic and the Constitution” — on Friday, April 18 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Wright Faladé is the author of the novel Black Cloud Rising (2022) and most recently The New Internationals (2025), as well as the co-author of the young adult novel Away Running (2016) and the nonfiction book Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers (2000), which was a New Yorker notable selection and a St. Louis-Dispatch Best Book of 2001. Wright Faladé was also a recipient of the Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, a prestigious award recognizing Black writers for their achievements.  He is a professor of English at the University of Illinois and the 2021–22 Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. He has also written for The New Yorker, Village Voice, Southern Review, Newsday, and more. Wright Faladé graduated from Carleton in 1986, completed nine months in Brazil as a Fulbright scholar, and later earned his MFA from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Artist and puzzle maker Wyna Liu delivered the Carleton convocation on Friday, April 11 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her address is titled, “A Bit About Connections.”  Liu is best known for her work as the writer of The New York Times’s iconic word game Connections, and often writes crosswords for The New Yorker. An avid puzzler and creator, Liu began constructing crossword puzzles in 2018 and published her first crossword in 2019 for the American Values Club Crossword, where she now serves as assistant editor. A year after her first publication, she became a games editor with The New York Times. In 2023, she was chosen by The New York Times to produce Connections for the newspaper’s games section.  When Liu isn’t working on a puzzle to confuse and intrigue the masses, she enjoys her artistic work. She exercises her talents through jewelry-making and creating sculptural, yet wearable clothing in her living room. Liu has taken classes in neon-making and puppetry, and has started experimenting with making wax molds. Liu earned her bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College and went on to earn her master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Chance York delivered the Carleton convocation address on Friday, April 4 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Among his many distinctions, York is a regional Academy Award-winning entertainer, co-founder of the program Peace in Practice, yoga instructor, rapper, student, and teacher. York has studied yoga for over 20 years, viewing it as an “art science,” which he studies in tandem with personal development. Through this line of work, York co-founded Peace In Practice, a nonprofit working to promote access and services to yoga, as well as wellness and mindfulness practices for the Black and brown communities of the Twin Cities area.  When he’s not working in yoga, York has a prolific entertainment career. Beyond playing in two bands, York has had serious success in the Twin Cities arena, and has opened for Chance the Rapper, DRAM, Saba, Chester Watson, and more. Furthermore, York boasts a notable career as an entertainer and on-camera personality. He is the host of the PBS Twin Cities show Outside Chance, which was awarded a regional Academy Award. The series emphasizes a growth mindset and explores activities and communities outdoors. A student at Brown University, York is a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) instructor and teaches at the University of Minnesota’s Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Syrian-American violinist Mariela Shaker delivered Carleton’s convocation address on Friday, February 28 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her address is titled, “Tragedy and Triumph: My Bow Bends for Peace.” An internationally recognized violinist and motivational speaker, Shaker was named a Champion of Change for World Refugees by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2015. Shaker strongly believes in music as a tool to bring people from different backgrounds together and to foster peace and love in the world. She uses her music to build bridges, promote peace, and raise awareness for the plight of refugees and vulnerable children around the world. She strives to inspire her students to express themselves freely and to find their own unique voice as performing artists. Shaker discovered her love of violin in 1999 after joining the Arabic Institute of Music in Aleppo, Syria. After graduating with distinction in 2004, Shaker taught violin at the Institute for five years while earning her degree in business administration at Aleppo University. Shaker received a full scholarship to Monmouth College, a nationally ranked American liberal arts college located in central Illinois, in 2013 for music performance, where she graduated with the highest honor of Excellence in Music Performance. She realized while she was studying at Monmouth that she would not be able to return home to Syria due to the country’s ongoing conflict. After completing her degree at Monmouth, Shaker received a full tuition scholarship to acquire a masters in music performance at Chicago’s DePaul University, from which she graduated in 2017. While in the U.S., she taught violin at Knox College as well as Monmouth, where she also served as the concertmaster for the College’s chamber orchestra. In 2020, Shaker founded the Highams Park Music Academy in London, where she serves as director. Shaker’s musical accolades are extensive. Her debut as a soloist was on June 20, 2015, at the Kennedy Center, to commemorate World Refugee Day, organized by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). She has performed as a soloist with Mesopotamian Symphony Orchestra at the California Theatre, and before Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. In 2016, Shaker was invited by Cate Blanchett to perform in London, and by the first Scottish Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, at the Beyond Borders International Festival in Scotland. In 2017, she was appointed a UNHCR High Profile Supporter and honored with the Anne Frank Promise Keeper Award in New York City.  Shaker has also performed at various programs for the United Nations, the White House, the Aspen Ideas Festival, Harvard University, MIT, Yale, Northwestern University, King’s College Chapel, and Georgetown University, among other prestigious venues. She has given recitals and masterclasses at more than 200 international venues, including venues in the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the U.A.E., Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the U.S.  Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Comedy writer and performer Claire McFadden ’13 delivered Carleton’s convocation address on Friday, February 21, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Her talk is titled, “Make it Yourself: How to Pursue a Creative Career After Carleton Even If You Majored in Something Completely Unrelated Like ENTS and the Path Forward Seems Shrouded in Mystery and Fear (A Convocation Speech).” McFadden has performed her improv and sketch comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest performance arts festival; San Francisco Sketchfest; Out of Bounds; and Chicago Sketchfest. She has also starred repeatedly in the Mainstage Revue at The Second City in Chicago. McFadden’s short romantic comedy, Kim’s Big Date, which she wrote, directed, and edited, premiered in 2019 at the Windy City International Film Festival, where it won Best Chicago Comedy. After its premiere, Kim’s Big Date was screened at 12 more film festivals across the U.S. McFadden wrote the film in celebration of friendship, saying, “I wanted to make a movie that celebrates how deeply my friends and I have been involved in each other’s lives, especially when navigating choppy, unknown romantic waters. They psych me up, calm me down, ghostwrite my texts, and lint-roll my pants.” McFadden also created and acted in the improvised web series Framed (2018) based on her year of working as a custom picture framer. Framed gained recognition through its inclusion on the Official Selection of the 2018 New York Television Film Festival. Previously, McFadden was a managing editor and staff writer for Jackbox Games, where she pitched the games Blather ‘Round and Quixort, and wrote for the popular games Quiplash, Drawful, and Trivia Murder Party.   McFadden graduated from Carleton in 2013 with a degree in environmental studies. She was a proud member of student organizations Lenny Dee and Cujokra. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Dr. Bryant Simon, an American historian and professor at Temple University, delivered the convocation address at Carleton on Friday, February 14 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. His speech, “The history of public bathrooms: A story of American inequality,” is based on a book he is currently writing on the topic, which is set to be published by University of Chicago Press.  Simon has previously published four books — The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, Cheap Lives (2017); Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks (2009); Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America (2004); and A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands (1998). Simon has also produced three co-edited collections as well as numerous essays that have appeared in media outlets ranging from The Washington Post to the Christian Science Monitor. Beyond writing, he has appeared as a talking head in documentaries about Starbucks, the history of American food, blue jeans, the Jersey Shore, the board game Monopoly, and the Alabama-based rock and roll band Drive-By Truckers.  The academic chair of the University Honors Program at Temple University in Philadelphia, Simon is also Laura H. Carnell Professor of History and the 2020 recipient of Temple’s Great Teacher Award. Simon founded and runs the Temple history department’s Global U.S. Studies Program, which features graduate exchange with the University of Erfurt, the University of Cologne, and Sorbonne University. Beyond his teaching, Simon’s academic work is widely recognized in his field; he is an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Speaker, an elected member of the Society of American Historians, and the previous president of the Southern Labor Studies Association.  Simon earned both his BA and PhD from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.  Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Printmaker Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. delivered the Carleton convocation on Friday, February 7, from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. His address is titled, “A Tirade Against Boomers.” Visit the convo website for an introductory poem Kennedy provided before his address. As a self-described “humble negro printer,”  Kennedy harnesses his printmaking abilities to produce social and political commentaries, often through posters. Kennedy’s passion for books and letters began at the age of four, yet it wasn’t until the age of 40, when Kennedy visited the living history museum of Colonial Williamsburg, that he was captivated by an eighteenth-century bookbinding and printmaking demonstration. This was the spark that inspired Kennedy to learn printmaking at a community-based letterpress shop in Chicago. Within a year, Kennedy made the leap and quit his job of nearly two decades as an AT&T systems analyst to further his education, and continued with the master book designer Walter Hamady at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating with an MFA in 1997. Today, Kennedy owns a letterpress print shop in Detroit, Michigan.  Kennedy’s work is motivated by his understanding of Black identity formed through his upbringing during the Civil Rights Era, witnessing the rise of Black Nationalism in the 1970s, and living in the current Post-Civil Rights Era. Using a blend of social commentary, folk art, and graphic design, Kennedy embraces his unique style to address violence, oppression, and dehumanizing stereotypes that the Black community faces, among many other issues. He is recognized as a Glasgow Fellow in Crafts (2015) and an Individual Laureate of the American Printing History Association (2021), and he received the Outstanding Printmaker Award from the Mid Atlantic Print Council (2022), among other honors. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Screenwriter and producer Bob Daily ’82 delivered convocation at Carleton College on Friday, January 31 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Through his address “On Creativity: Nine lessons I’ve learned, stolen and ignored,” Daily highlighted his path from Carleton to the entertainment industry.  Daily began his television career as a writer and producer on the famed NBC series Frasier, for which he was awarded back-to-back Writers Guild Awards for Outstanding Script in Television Comedy in 2003 and 2004. Daily wrote 15 episodes of Frasier — one of which was included in the book, Very Best of Frasier — over the course of five seasons. During his time on the show, he also received an Emmy nomination, and is currently working as a consulting producer on the latest Frasier series for Paramount Plus.  Beyond his work on Frasier, Daily served as an executive producer and eventual showrunner for Desperate Housewives from 2006 to 2012, earning him a Golden Globe nomination. Daily is also the co-creator of Superior Donuts and served as its executive producer and showrunner for two seasons. He served as executive producer on the ABC/Hulu series The Wonder Years, which won the Peabody Award in 2021 and was nominated for a 2023 NAACP Image Award.  His other executive producer credits include B Positive, Perfect Harmony, and The Odd Couple. Daily is currently working as an executive producer on the new hit ABC/Hulu series Shifting Gears while working as a consulting producer on the reboot of King of the Hill for Hulu.  Daily graduated from Carleton with a BA in English, and later earned an MA in English from University of Chicago. Before working in entertainment, Daily worked as a journalist, writing for a variety of publications including Chicago Magazine, Spy, Men’s Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and The Boston Globe. He has also published six children’s books. He is married to Janet Kerrigan Daily and has two children, Emma and Owen.  Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Noah Tarnow ’97 delivered convocation at Carleton College on Friday, January 24 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Tarnow detailed his unique path from Carleton alum to senior quizmaster in an address titled, “The Trivial Benefits of a Carleton Education (or, How One Alum Made Himself a Game Show Host),” which, of course, included trivia questions throughout.  Originally a biweekly nightlife event, Tarnow’s The Big Quiz Thing (BQT) evolved from a DIY quiz program into the nationwide customizable trivia event company that it is today, for which Tarnow serves as CEO, creative director, and senior quizmaster. In the two decades of its development, BQT has entertained hundreds of thousands of people across the country through its innovative take on classic bar-style trivia. BQT has even been adapted to television, as the world’s first bar-trivia-style TV show.  During his Carleton experience, Tarnow — a lifetime lover of obscure facts and habitual devourer of quirky reference books — became determined to study popular culture, despite the College’s then-lack of classes on the subject. Majoring in American studies with a media studies concentration, Tarnow managed to overcome some faculty doubts to write his comps about the history of Batman as a pop culture icon, carrying that knowledge and novelty to New York City as a magazine editor. By his late 20s, the novelty had worn off — his magazine career was stagnant, and a diversion into stand-up comedy was utterly unremarkable. Yet undeterred, Tarnow repurposed his love of being on stage (in some capacity) and formulated the DIY quiz program that became BQT. Tarnow now lives in San Francisco, where he also co-hosts the podcast I Don’t Get It: The Pop Culture Get-Off-My-Lawn Cast, and returns to Carleton when he can to check up on the Libe’s ever-growing section of graphic novels.  Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations

Political scientist Lawrence R. Jacobs delivered convocation at Carleton College on Friday, January 17 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in Skinner Chapel. Jacobs’ address, “American Democracy in Fractured Times,” stemmed from his expertise in American political science and was informed by the content of his latest book, Democracy Under Fire: Donald Trump and the Breaking of American History. Jacobs is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance (CSPG) at the University of Minnesota. He also serves as the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and holds the McKnight Presidential Chair — one of the highest faculty honors at the University of Minnesota — for his research work and contributions to the advancement of the university. In 2020, Jacobs was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Beyond that, Jacobs has written or collaborated on over 100 scholarly articles, 17 books, and numerous media essays and reports. Jacobs is a specialized expert in national and Minnesota elections, Midwestern swing states, presidential and legislative politics, political communications, health care reform, economic inequality, Social Security, and third party politics. Jacobs earned his BA in history and English from Oberlin College in 1981 and his PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1990. Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations