Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series
2020-2021 Dean's Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities
“In Pursuit of Justice and Grace: reflections on African American life and art”
presented by
Farah Jasmine Griffin, PhD
William B. Ransford Professor of English & Comparative Literature
Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies
Biography
Farah Jasmine Griffin, PhD, is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, and was the inaugural chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia University. Professor Griffin received her BA from Harvard and her PhD in American Studies from Yale.
Professor Griffin is the author of “Who Set You Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative”(Oxford, 1995), “Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland, and Addie Brown of Hartford Connecticut, 1854-1868” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), and “If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday” (Free Press, 2001). She is co-author, with Salim Washington, of “Clawing At the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever” (Thomas Dunne, 2008). She also is the author of “Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II,” published by Basic Books in 2013. Professor Griffin collaborated with composer and pianist Geri Allen and director and actor S. Epatha Merkerson on two theatrical projects for which she wrote the books. The first, “Geri Allen and Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo,” with Lizz Wright, Dianne Reeves, Teri Lyne Carrington, and others, premiered on the main stage of the Apollo Theater in May 2013. The second, “A Conversation with Mary Lou,” featuring vocalist Carmen Lundy, premiered at Harlem Stage in March 2014 and was performed at the Kennedy Center in May 2016.
Her forthcoming book, “Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature,” will be published by W.W. Norton in September 2021.
Past Distinguished Lecturers in the Humanities
2020–21 – Farah Jasmine Griffin
2018–19 – Randi Hutter Epstein
2017–18 – Kellie Jones
2016–17 – Rita Charon
2015–16 – Amale Andraos
2014–15 – Brian Greene
2013–14 – Pamela H. Smith
2012–13 – Mark C. Taylor
2011–12 – Sylvia Nasar
2007–08 – David Freedberg
2005–06 – Andrew Delbanco
2003–04 – Jonathan Cole
2002–03 – Jeffrey Sachs
2001–02 – Eric Foner
2000–01 – Edward W. Said
1999–2000 – Robert E. Pollack
1998–99 – Kenneth Jackson
1997–98 – Jack Greenberg
1996–97 – George Rupp
1995–96 – David N. Cannadine
1994–95 – Simon A. Schama
1993–94 – James H. Beck
1992–93 – Osborn Elliott
1991–92 – Henry F. Graf
1990–91 – Fred Friendly
1989–90 – Howard Shanet
1988–89 – Zbigniew Brzezinski
1987–88 – Louis Henkin
1986–87 – Barbara Aronstein Black
1985–86 – Robert Merton
1984–85 – Edith Porada
1983–84 – David Rothman
1982–83 – Harriet Zuckerman
1981–82 – Fritz Stern