Roosevelt Montás is the inaugural executive director of the Chang Chavkin Center and the John and Margaret Bard Professor in Liberal Education and Civic Life at Bard College. He emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Queens, New York, at age 12 and encountered the Western classics as an undergraduate in Columbia University’s renowned Core Curriculum. The experience changed his life and determined his career—he went on to earn a PhD in English and comparative literature, to serve as director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum for 10 years, and to advocate for access to high impact liberal education for all students. He is the author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021). He specializes in American political thought and literature and is also the author of Becoming America: Four Documents That Shaped a Nation (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2026) and co-editor of The Princeton History of American Political Thought (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2026). 

Jessica Lee is the associate director of the Chang Chavkin Center and chair of the Knowledge for Freedom network. Jessica began her work in liberal education in 2011 as the coordinator of the Freedom and Citizenship (F&C) program at Columbia University’s Center for American Studies. She served as the program’s executive director until 2025. F&C invites local high school students from under-resourced communities to live on Columbia’s campus while taking part in an intensive humanities summer seminar. It continues working with students year-round to support their college applications and to guide them through a civic leadership project. F&C’s success has inspired other universities to run similar programs, and Jessica co-founded the Knowledge for Freedom network to support faculty, administrators, and students participating in such programs nationwide.

Max Botstein is the assistant director of the Chang Chavkin Center for Liberal Education and Civic Life and visiting assistant professor of humanities at Bard College, where he teaches in the College’s liberal education First Year Seminar Program. He previously held a post-doctoral fellowship at Bard’s Hannah Arendt Center. Max is a historian of modern Europe, whose research focuses on the role of liberal education in the democratization and reform of German universities after the Second World War. Before coming to Bard, he taught courses in history and philosophy at Harvard University, where he received his PhD.

Zachary Roberts is the special projects manager for research and communications at the Chang Chavkin Center. He received his PhD in English and comparative literature from Columbia University, and has taught in Columbia’s Core Curriculum and the English department at Vassar College. His research focuses on American literature, culture, and intellectual history, as well as the history of liberal education. Zachary also serves as director of the Teagle Humanities Fellowship, a summer mentorship program for alumni/ae in the Knowledge for Freedom network, and teaches in the Freedom and Citizenship program.

For more information about Roosevelt Montás’s appointment, click here.

To explore our full team, click here.

Post Date: 02-19-2026