for Weinberg convocation

Gary S. Morson, Frances Hooper professor of Slavic languages and literature at Northwestern, will speak at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences convocation June 17 in Welsh-Ryan Auditorium, Weinberg officials said Thursday.

The Dean’s Student Advisory Board chose Morson in March based on his dedication to undergraduate teaching and involvement in the Northwestern community, said Tiffany Farriss, president of the board.

“Based on his charisma in his extremely popular classes on Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, the board felt that ‘he would make a perfect graduation speaker: engaging, funny, insightful, penetrating and inspirational,'” Farriss, a Weinberg senior, wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.

Morson has received numerous awards, including the “best-book” honor from the American Comparative Literature Association. He is the youngest researcher with a focus on Slavic studies to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Weinberg has a tradition of choosing one of its own professors to address graduates at convocation.