Cowell College Commencement Speaker

For the 2018 Cowell Commencement ceremony, we are proud to announce our very own Catherine Carlstroem as the esteemed keynote speaker! Catherine has been a Lecturer in the Humanities at UCSC since 1992 and received her PhD in American Literature from Santa Cruz in 2002. Her most notable courses include Cowell 80, Writing 2, Public Speaking, and American Studies 100. Since 2009, she has been the Coordinator of the Cowell Core Course, and as such, decides the reading material for the course. Outside of the classroom, Catherine is also known for her 2011 co-authored book, "The Jester and the Sages: Mark Twain in Conversations with Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx.” It examines religion, politics, philosophy, morality, and social issues. In 1989 she presented papers at professional meetings at the Western American Literature Association Conference and the California American Studies Association Conference.