In today’s episode, two professors reflect on what a college education is really for. Is it just about mastering content—or can it shape who we’re becoming and how we live? And what is the role of religious texts in this formative process?
You’ll hear from Roosevelt Montás, a professor of American Studies at Columbia, and Angel Adams Parham, a sociologist at UVA. In this episode, moderated by Columbia professor Dhananjay Jagannathan, they explore what a liberal arts education is, what we get wrong about college today, and why the university is an essential place to ask some of life’s biggest questions about meaning, purpose, and what we believe.
This forum was held at Columbia University in April 2025. Thank you to the student planning team for making this event possible.
Humans are more than the material — we are also inherently spiritual, which means that we have longings for meaning. We want to know why we're here. We want to know what it's all about.
Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? What kind of meaning is there to what I'm doing? I think that religious traditions give us guides to try to figure these questions out.
