Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a New York Times bestselling author, political commentator and Princeton University professor, will visit Wofford College and give a public lecture focused on James Baldwin and African-American history.
Glaude will be on Wofford’s campus Oct. 28 and his public event will be held at 7 p.m. in Leonard Auditorium. A book signing will follow at 8 p.m. The college’s COVID-19 protocols require masks while inside campus buildings.
“The history department is hosting a series of talks this academic year focused on African-American history,” said Mark Byrnes, professor of history and chair of the department. “We really wanted a high-profile scholar to serve as a keynote speaker, and Dr. Glaude is fitting. We quote James Baldwin on a brochure for potential history majors. Baldwin speaks to our times, and no one today is better able to talk about Baldwin and his relevance than Eddie Glaude.”
The talk is sponsored by the Wofford College Department of History, the Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professor in History Fund and the Office of the President.
Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton.
Glaude makes frequent appearances on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” contributes to MSNBC programs and writes a column for TIME Magazine. He’s considered an American critic in the tradition of Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson while discussing the nation’s complexities and vulnerabilities.
His most recent book, “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own,” is a New York Times bestseller. His other popular books are “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul” and “In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America.”
Glaude serves on the board of trustees for his undergraduate alma mater, Morehouse College. He’s a native of Moss Point, Mississippi, and enrolled at Morehouse at age 16. He earned his master’s degree in African American studies at Temple University and a Ph.D. in religion at Princeton.
He’s an inspiring orator, and his 2015 commencement remarks at Colgate University were recognized by The New York Times as one of the best commencement speeches of that year.
Wofford’s history department started its series of discussions on African-American history with Dr. Sylvanie Diouf, visiting scholar at Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice, giving a talk titled “Out of Slavery and into the Wild: Maroons in the United States.” Dr. Thavolia Glymph, Duke University’s Peabody Family Distinguished Professor of History, is scheduled to present “Autobiographies of Grief: Black Women in the Civil War” at 4 p.m. on Nov. 16 in the college’s Olin Theater. Three additional speakers will visit campus during the spring 2022 semester.