Stanley Stone Distinguished Lecture Series

About the Stanley P. Stone Distinguished Lecture Series

Stanley P. Stone
Stanley P. Stone (CGS’64, Questrom’66)

The Stanley P. Stone Distinguished Lecture Series brings notable, inspiring speakers to the College of General Studies (CGS), inviting the CGS and BU community to broaden their educational experience related to one of the College’s academic division areas: humanities, social science, natural sciences, or rhetoric. Lecture topic areas span the genres, from environmental change and violent conflict to the biology of viruses and public health; from racism in the U.S. to musical theatre and the American urban experience; from the evolution of goodness to American foreign policy. Instituted in 1989, the College is grateful to offer this enriching experience on an annual basis, made possible by the generosity of Stanley P. Stone (CGS’64, Questrom’66).

This year’s event:

Teaching Race and the Difference it Makes with Dr. Emily Bernard
 March 11, 2021 | 7-8 pm EST | Register here.

Dr. Emily Bernard. Photo credit: Stephanie Seguino

In this virtual event, Teaching Race and the Difference it Makes, award-winning author Dr. Emily Bernard will discuss difficult issues of race in and beyond the classroom. This lecture, which will be followed by Q&A, is part of the Stanley P. Stone Distinguished Lecture Series at Boston University’s College of General Studies.

Emily Bernard was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a B. A. and Ph. D. in American Studies from Yale University. Her first book, Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A contributing editor at The American Scholar, Emily is the Julian Lindsay Green and Gold Professor of English at the University of Vermont and a 2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Her new book, Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine, was named a best book of 2019 by NPR and Kirkus Reviews.

Previous speakers include:

  • Award-winning artist Lynda Barry
  • Global health advocate Paul Farmer
  • Journalist and expert on liberal democracies Yascha Mounk
  • Jacob Holdt, author of American Pictures
  • Civil rights activist and attorney J.L. Chestnut, Racism in the U.S.
  • American trial attorney, novelist, and former mayor of Beverly Hills Robert Tanenbaum, American Identity: Law Literature
  • Ugandan academic, author and political commentator Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: As a Guide to Understanding Politics
  • “Father of sociobiology”, “Father of biodiversity” and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson, On the Common Ground Between the Humanities and the Sciences
  • British actress and BAFTA award-winner Miriam Margoyles (Professor Sprout in Harry Potter), Dicken’s Women
  • American physicist, author of the international bestseller Einstein’s Dreams, and social entrepreneur Dr. Alan Lightman
  • British public intellectual and literary theorist Terry Eagleton, The Death of Criticism
  • Irish American activist and author of All Souls and Easter Rising Michael Patrick MacDonald