Jemele Hill to deliver lecture on race relations at ASU
Event featuring Emmy Award-winning journalist part of university's LIFT Initiative
Photo courtesy Jemele Hill
Emmy Award-winning journalist Jemele Hill will be the featured speaker at the 2024 A. Wade Smith and Elsie Moore Memorial Lecture on Race Relations, hosted by The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.
Hill is the co-founder of Lodge Freeway Media and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. Her 2022 autobiography, “Uphill: A Memoir,” is a character-rich, unapologetically provocative narrative in which Hill reveals her tumultuous childhood, complicated family dynamics and life-saving journey into journalism.
Hill’s 20-plus-year journalism career has included stops at ESPN and several reputable newspapers. She is known for addressing topical and controversial issues with humorous, candid commentary.
A. Wade Smith and Elsie Moore Memorial Lecture on Race Relations with Jemele Hill
6 p.m., Tuesday, April 23
ASU Tempe campus
Her many accolades include two NAACP Awards in 2022 for her podcast “Jemele Hill is Unbothered” and the Journalist of the Year Award in 2018 from the National Association of Black Journalists.
Hill follows a long history of renowned historians, writers and changemakers that have spoken at ASU for the lecture series, including Mamie Locke, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Danny Glover and, most recently in 2023, Ibram X. Kendi.
The series is the only endowed lecture at any college or university with a rich, 20-plus-year history featuring guest lecturers on race relations.
The A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations was created in 1995 to perpetuate the legacy of Professor and Chair of Sociology A. Wade Smith, who died of cancer at the age of 43, and his tireless efforts to improve race relations across ASU campuses and within the greater community.
In 2022, when Smith’s partner, Elsie Moore, who was also an ASU faculty member and a pioneering educational justice advocate, died, the lecture was renamed in her honor.
The annual event is among 25 engagements ASU has pledged to support in the enhancement of the lives and learning experience of Black students, staff and faculty through the LIFT initiative — itself inspired by ASU’s objectives and aspirations to transform society, enable student success and engage globally.
The 2024 lecture will be held on Tuesday, April 23, at 6 p.m. on the ASU Tempe campus. RSVP to receive full event details.
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