Renowned social critic and best selling author Camille Paglia spoke at Binghamton University on Tuesday. Despite the bad weather, she delivered her lecture — followed by a book signing and reception — to a nearly full house in the Anderson Center Chamber Hall.

Her visit was part of the Milton Kessler Distinguished Poetry Reader Series. Kessler (1931-2000) was an English Professor at BU and an esteemed poet.

As his former student, Paglia offered a touching portrayal of a passionate and inspiring professor who awakened a true appreciation of poetry in his students.

Paglia, who graduated from BU as a valedictorian in 1968, is twentieth on a list of the “100 top public intellectuals” by the British magazines “Prospect” and “Foreign Policy.” She is the author of several books and essay collections, among them “Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson”; “Sex, Art and American Culture”; “Vamps and Tramps”; along with her new work “Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World’s Best Poems.” All four of these works were national best sellers.

She alternated between praising Kessler and critiquing higher education in the United States. Her candid characterization of the modern educational system as awash with snobbish intellectualism attracted frequent laughter and applause.

Paglia attacked the elitist culture of Ivy League schools, questioning why parents are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars “for a sticker on their car.” She stated that while Ivy League schools have a lot of resources, their teaching is no better and is in fact impaired by a sort of group-think and intellectual closed-mindedness.

Paglia said that the humanities, and poetry in particular, are not being properly taught on college campuses. She admired Kessler for teaching that the whole body ought to respond to poetry, not just the mind. He warned his students not to over-intellectualize what they are reading, allowing themselves to experience it before moving on to interpretation. Reading from her old class notes, Paglia stated that Kessler believed some of the most esteemed poets of our time to be “super-intellectualized, pretentious word-choppers.” True poetry, he believed, must have “an incandescent quality … passionate, engaged, emotional and physical.”

While she saw much to criticize in modern America, Paglia’s tone remained optimistic. In her lecture she stated that history is cyclical and that a new wave of passion for the humanities will soon arrive. She encouraged those who are currently students to fight against the intellectual conformity of colleges and graduate schools and so help usher in a new era of intellectual freedom.