The Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises are held each year on Tuesday of Commencement Week. They have been a traditional part of Harvard Commencement since the eighteenth century. The Literary Exercises celebrate the humane learning and passion for intellectual exchange that are the ideal and hallmark of the Chapter. The two foci of the Exercises program are a reading by a Poet and an address by an Orator invited by the Chapter.

This year, at the 218th Literary Exercises, the Orator will be Professor Steven Weinberg, Josey Regental Professor of Science at the University of Texas. His subject will be "Without God". The Poet will be Carl Phillips '81, Professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He will read a poem "Night". Music at the Exercises will come from the Harvard Glee Club.

The Literary Exercises will take place this year at 11 am on Tuesday 3 June 2008 in Sanders Theatre. They are free and open to the public.

Past Orators and Poets