Visiting Scholar Talks

The Annual Lecture

Our most widely anticipated event of the year is the Annual Lecture. Each February, around the time of W. E. B. Du Bois’s birthday, the Du Bois Center invites a speaker, or set of speakers, to come to UMass and address the legacy of Du Bois. We have held 26 of these lectures over the years, and have enjoyed lectures by prominent speakers from a multitude of disciplines. These lectures have been made possible by generous donations from our supporters and, more recently, by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

  • 2023: “The Wounded World: W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War” Chad Williams, Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Brandeis University.
  • 2022: “W.E.B. Du Bois’s Archives: An Intellectual and Cultural History” Phillip Luke Sinitiere, W. E. B. Du Bois Center Scholar in Residence and professor of history at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston, Texas.
  • 2020: “Gendering Social Justice Capitalism: The Du Boisian question behind the curious case of grooming Black male success” Saida Grundy, Assistant Professor of Sociology, African-American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at Boston University
  • 2019: “What Would Du Bois Say? Activism and Scholarship” Francoise Hamlin, Associate Professor in History and Africana Studies at Brown University
  • 2018: “W. E. B. Du Bois and the Civil Rights Movement.” Reiland Rabaka, Professor of African, African American, and Caribbean Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado.
  • 2017: “Viewing the Past Through the Eyes of the Present: A Dialogue Around the Work of Kara Walker” Panel featuring Barbara Krauthamer (Dean of the Graduate School, Professor of History, and 2013-2014 “Emancipation” Fellow), Traci Parker (Asst. Professor of Afro-American Studies), and Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor (Asst. Professor of History, Smith College). 
  • 2016: “W. E. B. Du Bois and the founding of Sociology” Aldon Morris, Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Northwestern University
  • 2015: “W. E. B. Du Bois” David Levering Lewis, Julius Silver University Professor, Professor of History at New York University
  • 2014: “A Man for All Times: W. E. B. Du Bois” Brian Richardson and Pulse Ensemble Theatre
  • 2013: “The Life of W. E. B. Du Bois and Its Relevance to Today” Arthur McFarlane II, great-grandson of W. E. B. Du Bois
  • 2012: “Ideas Have Consequences: The Radical Pedagogy of W. E. B. Du Bois” Derrick Alridge, Professor in the Curry School of Education at University of Virginia
  • 2011: “W. E. B. Du Bois: Personal Stories/Political Reflections” Bettina Aptheker, Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies and History at University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 2010: “The Many Lives of W. E. B. Du Bois in the New From Slavery to Freedom” Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University
  • 2009: Howard Dodson, Chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library
  • 2008: “W. E. B. Du Bois and Ralph Ellison” Arnold Rampersad, Department of English at Stanford University
  • 2007: “The Unknown Du Bois: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Future of Black Studies in the Twenty-First Century” James Turner, Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University
  • 2006: “W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King” Clayborne Carson, Stanford University, director of Martin Luther King Papers Project
  • 2005: “The Enduring Greatness of the The Souls of Black Folk“ Robert A. Hill, University of California, Los Angeles, editor of The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers
  • 2004: “Du Bois and Bond: Black Education in the Age of Jim Crow” John H. Bracey, Professor of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst
  • 2003: “Revisiting The Souls of Black Folk: A Centenary Celebration” Horace Clarence Boyer, Professor Emeritus of Music at UMass Amherst
  • Esther Terry, Professor of Afro-American Studies and Associate Chancellor for Equal Opportunity and Diversity at UMass Amherst
  • Phil Zuckerman, Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College: “Du Bois, Religion, and The Souls of Black Folk“
  • David Blight, Professor of History at Yale University: “A Poet’s Sense of the Past: The Souls of Black Folk as History”
  • Ernest Allen, Professor of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst: “The Education of Black Folk: The Educational Philosophies of W.E.B. Du Bois”
  • Gerald Friedman, Professor of Economics at UMass Amherst: “Reconstructing the Color Line: The New Economics of Race in the Post-bellum South”
  • 2002: “Recollections of W.E.B. Du Bois in the McCarthy Era by His Friends and Colleagues” Esther Cooper Jackson, Co-founder of Freedomways, James Jackson, Editor of Daily Worker, Abbott Simon, Executive director of the Peace Information Center and co-defendant with Dr. Du Bois
  • 2001: “W. E. B. Du Bois and the Problem of the Twenty-first Century” David Levering Lewis, Professor of History at Rutgers University
  • 2000: “Du Bois’ Prophecy: The Color Line and Education at the Start of a New Century” Ruth Simmons, President of Smith College
  • 1999: “Du Boisian Double Consciousness: The Unsustainable Argument” Ernest Allen, Professor or Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst
  • 1998: “Du Bois in Context” Randolph W. Bromery, President of Springfield College and former Chancellor of UMass Amherst
  • 1996: “W. E. B. Du Bois” David Levering Lewis, Professor of History at Rutgers University
  • 1995: “Celebration of Learning” David Du Bois, William Strickland, Michael Thelwell
  • 1987: “The Du Bois Legacy: Reflections on His Birthday” Herbert Aptheker, Editor of Complete Published Works of W. E. B. Du Bois