The ceremony will look much like this

You are cordially invited by the Academic Awards Committee of Columbia College to join in consuming some “pomp and circumstance worthy” hors d’oeuvres and honoring some professors. Tonight at 6 p.m. in the Faculty Room of Low, Boris Gasparov will receive the 38th annual Lionel Trilling Award for his book “Beyond Pure Reason: Ferdinand de Saussure’s Philosophy of Language and Its Early Romantic Antecedents,” and Nicholas Dames will receive the 52nd annual Mark Van Doren Award in recognition of his “humanity, devotion to truth and inspiring leadership.” All and sundry are welcome to the event; get your RSVP on here. The reception starts at 6 p.m., with the ceremony taking place from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Gasparov is the Boris Bakhmeteff Professor of Russian and East European Studies in, naturally, the Department of Slavic Languages; Dames is the Theodore Kahan Professor of Humanities and teaches in the English department. Congratulations to both! Troop over to Low tonight to get a study break, some wealth of knowledge, and classy free food.

Classy times via Wikimedia