Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture Series

The Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture is one of three distinguished lectures sponsored by the Office of the Provost at Teachers College, Columbia University. It is designed to bring together leading experts in the fields of education and the humanities to share their scholarship and engage in meaningful discussions with the Teachers College community. 

The lecture pays lasting tribute to Professor Edmund W. Gordon, Founder and Director Emeritus of the Gordon Institute for Advanced Study, whose incomparable legacy of achievement and service to humanity continues to inspire scholars and educators for generations to come.

You are invited to our 12th Annual Gordon Distinguished Lecture

In its 12th year, the Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture will feature Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Duke University. A leading scholar on systemic racism and racial inequality, Bonilla-Silva is best known for his groundbreaking work Racism Without Racists and his theory of “color-blind racism.” His lecture, “It’s Not the Bad Apples: On the Import of White Normativity,” will explore how racial hierarchies persist through social structures and norms rather than individual prejudice. 

About the Speaker 

Professor Bonilla-Silva received his BA in Sociology with a minor in Economics in 1984 from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. He received his MA (1988) and PhD (1993) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Bonilla-Silva worked at the University of Michigan (1993-1998) and Texas A&M University (1998-2005), prior to joining Duke in 2005. He gained visibility in the social sciences with his 1997 American Sociological Review article, “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation,” where he challenged analysts to study racial matters structurally. His book, Racism without Racists (6th edition in 2022), has become a classic in the field and it is used widely by scholars in multiple fields. His book, White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology (2012 with Tukufu Zuberi) has helped reshape the conversation of how we should measure the impact of racial stratification on various social outcomes. Bonilla-Silva has received many awards, most notably, the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2021, given by the American Sociological Association to “scholars who have shown outstanding commitment to the profession of sociology and whose cumulative work has contributed in important ways to the advancement of the discipline.” He served as President of the Southern Sociological Society and the American Sociological Association in 2017-2018. He served as the 2024-2025 Pitt Professor of History and Social Institutions at Cambridge University.

Watch Past Lectures

11th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (April 15, 2025)

Delivered by
Hortense Spillers
Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor
Distinguished Research Professor Emerita 
Vanderbilt University
April 15, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K8w8e-vpuQ 

10th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (December 5, 2023)

Delivered by
Fred Moten
Professor, Associate Chair of Performance Studies
Professor, Comparative Literature
New York University
December 5, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYMvLtXjv6A

9th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (February 7, 2023)

Delivered by
Ezekiel Dixon-Román
Professor, Critical Race, Media and Educational Studies 
Director, Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study
Teachers College, Columbia University 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCo6-b6qlCc&t=1547s 

8th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (November 18, 2021)

Delivered by
Lisa E. Farrington
Associate Dean, Fine Arts 
Director, Howard University Gallery of Art 
Howard University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHl-8suR3fo 

7th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (November 17, 2020)

Delivered by
Mary Schmidt Campbell
President
Spellman College
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGNFdOfWywU 

6th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (July 15, 2019)

Delivered by
Gloria Ladson-Billings
Kellner Family Distinguished Professor, Urban Education
University of Wisconsin - Madison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3TiKoV9EfE  

5th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (July 18, 2018)

Delivered by
Angela Valenzuela
Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
University of Texas - Austin 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9NS_m_eIrM&list=PLuFs4Fyk-v0CFUtcaWUtTbXARCRFyjGVU&index=4 

4th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (February 16, 2018)

Delivered by
Erica Walker
Professor, Mathematics Education
Teachers College, Columbia University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyp-3szHoww&list=PLuFs4Fyk-v0CFUtcaWUtTbXARCRFyjGVU&index=5 

3rd Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (October 8, 2015)

Delivered by
Sonia Nieto
Professor Emerita, Language, Literacy, and Culture
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOAZGDmzv0U 

2nd Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (October 2, 2014)

Delivered by
Vanessa Siddle Walker
Professor, History of American Education 
Professor, Qualitative Research Methods
Emory University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y32AcGrpCG4&list=PLuFs4Fyk-v0CFUtcaWUtTbXARCRFyjGVU&index=7 

Inaugural Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (October 10, 2013)

Delivered by
Charles Payne
Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration University of Chicago 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54jh35z7CU