Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture Series
You are invited to the 13th Annual Gordon Distinguished Lecture on
Tuesday, December 8th from 5pm ET featuring
Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley
On Tuesday, December 8, 2026 at CUNY Graduate Center, we are honored to welcome Professor Robin D. G. Kelley, the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA as our 13th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecturer. One of the most respected historians of African American life, politics and culture, Dr. Kelley’s essays have appeared in publications including The Nation, the New York Times and The Boston Review, for which he also serves as Contributing Editor. His books include Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression and Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. In his lecture, “The Last Lecture: A Postmortem and Eulogy on the University” Dr. Kelley will reflect on the life and what feels like a long yet imminent death of the university: Who killed it? What comes next? A rebirth of education?
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to contact OASID at oasid@tc.edu, (212) 678-3689, or (212) 678-3854 (video phone) as early as possible to request reasonable accommodations, such as ASL interpreters, alternate format materials, and a campus map of accessible features.
About the Speaker
Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Freedom Scholar Award. His books include the prize-winning Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press, 2009); Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon Press, 2002, new ed. 2022); Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (University of North Carolina Press, 1990, new ed. 2015); Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Beacon Press, 1997); Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (Free Press, 1994); Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Harvard University Press, 2012); with Howard Zinn and Dana Frank, Three Strikes: The Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century (Beacon Press, 2001); Into the Fire: African Americans Since 1970 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
He is also co-editor of the following books: Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies (Colin Kaepernick and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor) (Haymarket Books, 2023); Walter Rodney, The Russian Revolution: A View From the Third World (with Jesse Benjamin) (Verso, 2018); The Other Special Relationship: Race, Rights and Riots in Britain and the United States (with Stephen Tuck) (Palgrave, 2015); Black, Brown and Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the African Diaspora (with Franklin Rosemont) (University of Texas Press, 2009); To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans (with Earl Lewis) (Oxford University Press, 2000); Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora (with Sidney J. Lemelle) (Verso Books, 1995); and the eleven volume Young Oxford History of African Americans (with Earl Lewis) (1995-1998).
His essays have appeared in dozens of publications, including The Nation, New York Times, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Hammer and Hope, American Historical Review, American Quarterly, Black Scholar, Dissent, Counterpunch, African Studies Review, Social Text, Journal of American History, Journal of Palestine Studies, New Labor Forum, and The Boston Review, for which he also serves as Contributing Editor.
Kelley hosted the critically acclaimed podcast, Erroll Garner Uncovered, and has written liner notes for recordings by jazz legends and rising stars, including Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Chick Corea, Randy Weston, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Owens, Gil Scott-Heron, James Brandon Lewis, Aja Monet, Miles Okazaki, Teodross Avery, Asher Gamedze, Ben Wolfe, and Claire Daly.
Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, Founding Director
Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Advanced Study
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.
Past Lectures
12th Annual Edmund W. Gordon Distinguished Lecture (December 9, 2025)
Delivered by
Eduardo Bonilla Silva
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Sociology
Duke University
December 9, 2025
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
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