In 2014, Reuben and Cheryl Munday established an endowment for an annual distinguished lecture at Cornell’s Africana Studies and Research Center. Through the Reuben A. Munday ’69, MPS ’74, and Cheryl Casselberry Munday ’72 Distinguished Lecture, the department has had the opportunity to bring leading scholars of African and African-American studies - or otherwise distinguished African-Americans - to campus every year.
The Mundays are loyal Cornellians and are dedicated to giving back to their community, both in Detroit and at Cornell. Reuben is chairman emeritus of the law firm Lewis & Munday P.C. in Detroit, where he has practiced law since 1977. He is a life member of Cornell University Council and a past member of its administrative board. Cheryl Munday is professor of psychology at the University of Detroit Mercy where she is faculty in Masters of Community Development in its School of Architecture. They hope their gift – the first ever endowment in the department – will inspire others to also support Africana Studies and Research Center.
2023: Vincent Brown,
Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University
Vincent Brown is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He has published two prize-winning books about the history of slavery: The Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (2008) and Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (2020). The author of numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals, he is also Principal Investigator and Curator for the animated thematic map Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760-1761: A Cartographic Narrative (2013), he was Producer and Director of Research for the award-wining television documentary Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness (2009), broadcast nationally on season 11 of the PBS series Independent Lens, and he is the executive producer and host for The Bigger Picture, co-produced with WNET for PBS Digital. His company Timestamp Media explores the history that connects people and places across the world.
View the lecture: https://vod.video.cornell.edu/media/t/1_xv2375eg
2019: Craig Steven Wilder,
Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology
Craig Steven Wilder studies American urban, intellectual, and cultural history. His most recent book is Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities (2013). A professor of history at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology and a recipient of the Columbia University Medal of Excellence, he serves as a senior fellow in the Bard Prison Initiative which provides higher education and opportunity to incarcerated men and women, and he has advised numerous public history projects, including historical documentaries and museum exhibits.
View the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLeT6upX5Ow
Imani Perry,
Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University
Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is also affiliated with the Program in Law and Public Affairs, The University Center for Human Values and Jazz Studies. She is the author of May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop, and the forthcoming: Looking for Lorraine: The Radical and Radiant Life of Lorraine Hansberry. Perry has published scholarly articles in the fields of legal history, cultural studies and literary studies.
View the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8ZoCEjwHw
Khalil Gibran Muhammad,
Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies
Khalil Gibran Muhammad is Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. He is the former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global black history. Before leading the Schomburg Center, Khalil was an associate professor at Indiana University - "A Revitalized Black Public Sphere and the Future of American Democracy"
View the lecture Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SL-jY3ujMo&t=163s Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52R-PxaqFts&t=141s
Eugene Robinson,
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and a political analyst for MSNBC - "Election 2016: Who's Up, Who's Down, & What's Really Going On"
Alondra Nelson,
Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies and Dean of Social Science at Columbia University
Alondra Nelson, professor of sociology and gender studies and Dean of Social Science at Columbia University, where she has served as director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality - "A Portal to the Past, A Beacon for the Future: DNA and the Politics of Racial Reconciliation"
View the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6LgDdWg1bQ
Robin D. G. Kelley,
Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA
Robin D. G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA - "John (and Michael) Brown’s Body: Meditations on War, Race and Freedom"
View the lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YMFIH7Zk1Q