{"id":72054,"date":"2023-06-27T16:14:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T20:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?page_id=72054"},"modified":"2026-08-11T14:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:49:27","slug":"howard-zinn-memorial-lecture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/community\/lectures\/howard-zinn-memorial-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up Next:<\/h2>\n

Speaker<\/strong>: Claudia Rankine<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Recipient of the 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, Claudia Rankine is the author\u00a0of five collections of poetry including Citizen: An American Lyric<\/em> and Don\u2019t Let Me Be Lonely<\/em>; two plays including Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue<\/em>; and is the editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind<\/em>. Her first published play, The White Card<\/em>, was published with Graywolf Press in 2019. She also co-produces a video series, \u201cThe Situation,\u201d alongside John Lucas, and is the founder of the Open Letter Project: Race and the Creative Imagination<\/em>. Among her numerous awards and honors, Rankine is the recipient of the Poets & Writers\u2019 Jackson Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Just Us: An American Conversation <\/em>(Graywolf, 2020), is a collection of essays where Rankine questions what it means in these spaces to interrogate white privilege, well-meaning liberal politics, white male aggression, the implications of blondness, white supremacy in the White House, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and the alarming move toward Brexit.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, December 2, 2026<\/strong>
\nTsai Performance Center, 6:00 \u2013 7:30PM
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\nRegister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Learn About the History of Howard Zinn<\/h5>
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Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture<\/h3>\n

The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture was established in 2008 to be a stimulating and energizing memorial to the progressive political values Professor Howard Zinn embodied as a writer, teacher, and mentor. Howard Zinn (1922\u20132010) was a longtime professor in BU’s Department of Political Science. Renowned for his work as a historian, author, professor, playwright, and activist, he wrote dozens of books, including A People’s History of the United States. His work focused on a wide range of issues, including race, class, war, and history. More information about his life and work is available at howardzinn.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Howard Zinn was an author, a history professor, and a political activist whose writings changed the lives of BU students and readers around the world. Zinn taught in the College of Arts & Sciences\u2019 political science department for twenty-four years, from 1964 to 1988. He was a hero of the political left, a consistent and cogent critic of American policies, both domestic and international. He is best known for his 1980 book\u00a0<\/em>A People\u2019s History of the United States, which countered the premise that history must be written by and for society\u2019s “winners.” A television documentary released in 2009,\u00a0<\/em>The People Speak, translated Zinn\u2019s work to the screen for yet another generation of progressive thinkers. The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture is made possible by the Zinn Lecture Fund, which is supported by a generous gift from Alex MacDonald, Esq. (CAS\u201972), and his late wife Maureen A. Strafford, MD (MED\u201976).<\/em><\/p>\n

Students and Faculty Reflect on Howard Zinn<\/a><\/strong>
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Past Lectures<\/h3>\n
2025<\/h6>
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\"\"John Shattuck describes historical and contemporary examples of resistance, including the grassroots growth of a new nationwide movement in the US, organized by Indivisible and other grassroots groups, and the principles this movement should follow and the strategies it should use in organizing effective resistance today.
\nWatch the lecture here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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2024<\/h6>

\n\"\" Jelani Cobb<\/a>, New Yorker<\/em> staff writer and dean, Columbia Journalism School: “The Half-Life of Freedom, Race, and Justice in America Today.” <\/h7><\/span>Watch the Lecture.<\/a><\/p>\n

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2023<\/h6>
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\"JulesJules Gill-Peterson, <\/a>Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and\u00a0 author of Histories of the Transgender Child<\/a>, the first book to shatter the widespread myth that transgender children are a brand-new generation in the twenty-first century: “What Sort of Work is Transition? Class, Labor, and Trans History.” Watch the Lecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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2022<\/h6>
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\"\"<\/a>Professor Mae Ngai,<\/a> Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History, and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University: “The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes, Chinese Migration, and Global Politics.” Watch the Lecture<\/a><\/p>\n

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2021<\/h6>
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\"\"<\/a>Jill Lepore<\/a>, David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History, Harvard College Professor, and Affiliate Professor of Law: “Amend: Rewriting the U.S. Constitution.”<\/p>\n

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2020<\/h6>
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\"\"<\/a>Ibram X. Kendi<\/a>, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, professor of history, and founding director of BU’s Center for Antiracist Research<\/a>. Read a recap on BU Today<\/em><\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Submit a Nomination for the 2026 lecture<\/h6>

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