Distinguished Visiting Humanist: Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky, noted author and emeritus professor of linguistics at MIT, was invited to the University for three days in April, 2016 as part of the Distinguished Visiting Humanist Program. The program, now in its fourth year, brings eminent scholars and public intellectuals to the University of Rochester to engage in such activities as public lectures, workshops, and group discussions.

This video covers some highlights of Professor Chomsky's visit, which included discussions on topics of activism, politics and linguistics. It included several discussions with members of the University community, including a discussion with Students for a Democratic Society. He also delivered the keynote lecture in the Interfaith Chapel to a full house entitled "Language, Creativity, and the Limits of Understanding".

Professor Chomsky is one of the most influential thinkers and public intellectuals of our time, writing and speaking about everything from linguistics and the mind to the nature and cultural significance of power, force, exploitation, manipulation, the media, and just government. He was voted the leading living public intellectual in the 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll conducted by the British magazine Prospect, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, and has received honorary degrees from over 35 universities around the world. In 2011, he was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize.