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Roland Lamb
“I hope to emulate scholars like Charles Taylor and Amartya Sen, who have found ways to share the fruits of their scholarship with a broad audience, in the best tradition of public philosophy.”
- Program: 2008 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
- Hometown: Cambridge, MA
- Four-year College or University: Harvard University
- Graduate School: TBD
Video Spotlight: Cooke Graduate Scholar Roland Lamb and Cooke College Scholar Anguel Alexiev |
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Biography
PROFILE: Roland Lamb grew up in a family of artists and loved playing the piano. When his best friend died, his search for answers led to Zen meditation and at 18, he went off to live in a Japanese monastery. That year, he decided that life’s meaning is not out there to be found; it has to be made. Roland has been making that life ever since. At Harvard University he designed his own concentration to study cross-cultural and comparative philosophy. “I aspired to play a role not only in making a difference in people’s lives according to values that already existed, but also by contributing to the creation of a cross-culturally meaningful vision of our collective life.”
For Roland, pursuing that meaningful vision has included extensive training in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Japanese. Even veteran Harvard professors tend to describe him as “off the charts” and “brilliant,” and students find him inspiring as an assistant teacher. After pursuing his master’s degree in the UK, he plans to return to Harvard for his doctorate.
INSPIRATION: After discovering that Mou, a Sudanese teen that Roland was tutoring, did not know what day or year he was born, Roland offered to share his birthday. “Now every year on our birthday I think of Mou. Seeing his hopeful perseverance instilled in me a profound gratitude for the opportunities I have had, and a feeling of awe before the human spirit—Mou’s human spirit.”
ASPIRATION: Roland intends to research and write about cross-cultural philosophy, working on a range of questions about how we define ourselves and our societies.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Roland is the Founder and Director of Art Night and the Global Action and Awareness Project. He serves as Editorial Assistant for the Harvard Review of Philosophy.
ACCOLADES: Roland is a recipient of the Dean’s Research Award, the Detur Prize, and the John Harvard Scholarship. He was awarded First Prize for his essay, A Personal Encounter with Philosophy, and won the Chinese Essay Writing Prize.
INTERESTING FACT: Roland has sold over 50 pieces of his artwork and has performed on the piano in Japan, Taiwan, and the US.
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