marist

Understanding Race Lecture Series

Menu Display

Breadcrumb

Image of Understanding Race Lecture Series speaker Michelle Alexander Marist will continue to emphasize diversity in the speakers and presentations we bring to campus, particularly through our ongoing Understanding Race Lecture Series. In the last several years alone, we are proud to have hosted Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Michelle Alexander, Ibram X. Kendi, Bakari Sellers, and Reyna Grande.

Past Speakers

AUTUMN 2020

  • Social Justice Conference – Entire day of speakers and workshops, including keynote by Nyle Fort and Selwyn Miles Jones on "Black Lives and the Legacy of George Floyd: A Conversation"

SPRING 2020

  • Jasmine Rand, Esq. – lawyer for family of Trayvon Martin, on the subject of the killing of unarmed Black men

AUTUMN 2019

  • Social Justice Conference – Entire day of speakers and workshops, including keynote address by the authors of Picking Cotton, on the subject of racism in the criminal justice system

    • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Charlotte Burrows to Give Closing Talk at Social Justice Event

  • Bakari Sellers – lawyer and political commentator, on the subject of education, civil rights, and equality

SPRING 2019

  • Ibram X. Kendi – author of How to be an Anti-Racist, on how to be an anti-racist

SPRING 2018

AUTUMN 2017

  • Reyna Grande – author of The Distance Between Us, on her Mexican immigrant experience

AUTUMN 2016

  • Wes Moore – author of The Other Wes Moore, on the subject of race in urban America
  • Tim Wise – author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race, on the subject of antiracism

SPRING 2016

  • James Cone – author of Black Theology and Black Power, on the subject of lynching
  • Vernon Wall – required faculty training on anti-racism

AUTUMN 2015

  • Cornel West – best-selling author of Race Matters and frequent political commentator on national news programs, on the subject of race, class, and justice in America

SPRING 2014

  • Launch of Marist’s “Understanding Race” Lecture Series
  • Michael Eric Dyson – author of 20 books addressing multi-generational racial oppression, on the subject Race, Racism and Race Relations, launches Marist’s “Understanding Race” Lecture Series