Roosevelt Montás is senior lecturer in American studies and English at Columbia University. He is director of Columbia’s Freedom and Citizenship program, which introduces high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds to the Western political tradition through the study of primary texts and helps them prepare competitive applications to college. From 2008 to 2018, he was director of the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia College. Roosevelt serves on the board of directors of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, the Great Questions Foundation, and the Catherine Project. He is also a member of the academic council of the Jack Miller Center. He is author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021) and of Becoming America: Four Documents That Shaped a Nation and Why Their Ideas Still Matter (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2026). He is co-editor of The Princeton History of American Political Thought (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2025). He speaks widely on the history, place, and future of liberal education and his opinion pieces have appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The New York Daily News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and The Dispatch, among other publications. He holds an A.B. (1995), an M.A. (1996), and a Ph.D. (2004) in English and comparative literature from Columbia University as well as the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa from Ursinus College.