The Christopher U. Light Lectureship

This lectureship, established in 1984 by Carleton alumnus Christopher Light ’58, enables various Carleton departments to bring prominent professional artists to campus each year. Mr. Light is a freelance writer, composer, record producer, and musician, with a special interest in combining music and computing.

Past Light Lectureships in Literature include Lorrie Moore, Barry Lopez, Louise Erdrich, Wendy Wasserstein, Derek Mahon, Yehuda Amichai, Andrew Hudgins, Anne Beattie, C. D. Wright, Seamus Deane, Carolyn Forché, Alberto Ríos, Susan Stewart, and Marilynne Robinson.

Recent Light Lecturers

The Fred W. Schuster and Margaret C. Schuster Distinguished Visiting Lectureship in Literature

This lectureship was established in 1986 through the generosity of Carleton alumna Margaret Clapp Schuster (’38), of Rochester, Minnesota, in the names of herself and her late husband, Fred W. Schuster, a Carleton English major of the class of 1935. The Schuster lectureships bring to Carleton distinguished men and women of letters who contribute to our understanding of literature.

Schuster Lectureships have been held by Richard Helgerson, Northrop Frye, Barbara Johnson, Barbara Packer, Stephen Greenblatt, Barbara Lewalski, Anne K. Mellor, Peter Brooks, Heather Dubrow, Geoff Dyer, Nicholas Grene, Christopher Ricks, Maria DiBattista, Richard Wolfson, Jean-Michel Deprats, David Porter, Noel Polk, Thadious M. Davis, William Kittredge, Robert S. Levine, and Frank Shuffelton. 

Recent Schuster Lecturers

2021-22

2020-21

2019-20

2018-19

2017-18

2016-17

2015-16

2014-15

2013-14

  • Janine Barchas (University of Texas, Austin)
  • Salman Rushdie (In association with the Lucas Lectureship)
  • Debora Shuger (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Sister Outsider 

2012-13

  • James Kincaid (University of Southern California)
  • Siri Hustvedt (novelist and essayist) 

2011-12

  • Nuruddin Farah (European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and University of Minnesota)
  • Laura Brown (Cornell University)
  • Katherine Rowe (Bryn Mawr College) 

2010-11

  • Pierre Bayard (University of Paris VIII)
  • Karen Tei Yamashita (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  • Louis Menand (Harvard University)