The Babcock Lecture

An economist and memoirist, Dr. Sonali Deraniyagala is on the faculty of the Department of Economics of SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, and is Visiting Professor at Columbia University, New York. Her academic work focuses on the macroeconomics of poverty and inequality and on the political economy of climate shocks. Her most recent publication is (with John Mutter) Disasters and Development (Columbia University Press, 2025). In addition to being a global bestseller, her memoir, Wave (Knopf/Vintage, 2013), won the PEN/Ackerley Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Awards, a New York Times Best 10 books of 2013, and was named one of the New York Times 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years.

Wave (Knopf/Virago, 2013) tells the story of the author’s family—husband, sons, parents—having been swept away by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami while vacationing in Sri Lanka. Deraniyagala alone survives to tell her tale of unimaginable loss; her journey through unsparing grief; and the recovery of memory, love, and self.

“Water Chaos,” an exhibit of the photographs of Hilary Duffy ’91, and of Roy Rowan, Time-Life American foreign correspondent, assistant managing editor of Life magazine, and Hartwick Trustee (1986-’94), is on display on the 4th floor of Hartwick’s Stevens-German Library, Yager Hall.

From the Paul F. Cooper, Jr. Archives, Stevens-German Library, Rachel Gleiberman, Curator and Archivist.

• Richard Kopley, “Poe in Richmond 1836”
• Stephan Loewentheil, “My Life with Poe from Washington PA to Washington DC, and Beyond”
• Professor Emeritus of English David Cody, Film & Commentary – “Fellini’s Poe: Toby Dammit“
• Anna Kornbluh, “Historical Fictions, Heist Flicks, and other Climate Genres for a Burning World”
• Robert T. Tally Jr., “Mapping and Monsters: Critical Theory in the Teratocene”
• Paul Benzon, “The Poetics and Politics of the Paralegible”
• Amitava Kumar, “The Man Without a Country”
• Brian Greenspan, “The Mobile Sleuth: Stories for Urban Media”

The Babcock Lecture is presented by the Babcock Chair in English, the Department of Literature Media and Writing, and the Visiting Writers Series at Hartwick College.

In 1941, Cora A. Babcock, a graduate of Hartwick Seminary, partially endowed the Babcock Chair in English to honor Dr. James A. Pitcher, whose inspired teaching of English and theology at the Seminary had influenced Babcock’s decision to teach and whose career as scholar, poet, and administrator had strengthened the Seminary. Later receiving further support from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to enhance instruction in the humanities at Hartwick College, the Babcock Chair’s endowment was increased “to reward outstanding achievement by a member of our own faculty.” The Babcock Chair is a three-year appointment that supports scholarly work, creative work, and pedagogical or curricular research of tenured faculty who have established a record of superior teaching and scholarly or creative work. The Babcock Professor also administers one or two major lectures a year, to be called the Babcock Lectures.

For more information, please contact Professor of English and Babcock Professor of English Susan Navarette at [email protected] or 607- 431-4643.