Donald Keene

Today, there will be a symposium to honor Donald Keene, CC ’42, MA ’47, PhD ’49, University Professor emeritus, and one of the most celebrated scholars of Japanese culture in the world. He even has a Center of Japanese Culture named after him! After a brief stint lecturing at Cambridge, Keene began teaching at Columbia in 1955 and has never left (remember this Blue and White story about Columbia lifers?), despite living for the last 52 years in Japan. This semester marks the final time the 89-year-old professor will teach a class (this graduate seminar in Japanese lit, in case you were wondering). Japanese scholars at top schools like Berkeley, Cornell, and of course Columbia, all of whom are former students of his, will gather in Kent 403 at 1pm to celebrate and commemorate his legacy. A reception will follow at 6pm tonight in Kent 300, the C.V. Starr East Asian Library. Can we come?