Dr. Michael Eric Dyson Keynote Speaker

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is the Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University, serving as University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies in the College of Arts and Science, and University Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Divinity School. He is also a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, as well as a contributing editor for The New Republic and ESPN’s The Undefeated. Dyson’s journey from humble beginnings in Detroit to his current role as a renowned intellectual, author of 21 books, prominent leader, and national media figure highlights his extraordinary talent. He has also taught at prestigious universities including Georgetown University, Brown University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, and The University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Dyson has received numerous prestigious honors, including an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards. Ebony magazine named him one of the 100 most influential African Americans and one of the 150 most powerful Black Americans.

Beyond academia, Dyson is a celebrated orator, highly sought-after lecturer, and ordained Baptist minister. For the past 25 years, he has enriched public debate across the media landscape, appearing on major television and radio programs such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Real Time with Bill Maher, Good Morning America, The Today Show, NPR’s All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, The Tavis Smiley Show, Def Poetry Jam, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and various ESPN programs.

Dyson’s pioneering scholarship has had a profound impact on American ideas. His 1994 book Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X was named one of the most important African American books of the 20th century and a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year.” His 2001 book Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur was credited by Publisher’s Weekly with helping make books on hip-hop commercially viable.

Dyson’s recent work, Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America, continues his celebration of the significant impact of African American culture and politics. His book JAY-Z: Made in America was named one of The Washington Post’s 50 notable works of nonfiction in 2019, highlighting Jay-Z’s influence on American society and his use of music to address issues of race and social injustice. Dyson’s writing has earned him praise from Vanity Fair, describing him as “one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today.” His 2005 New York Times bestseller Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? sparked a national conversation on the Black poor. His critically acclaimed The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America was described by The New York Times as “an interpretive miracle” and was a finalist for the prestigious 2016 Kirkus Prize.

Dyson’s book Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America was described by The New York Times as “one of the most frank and searing discussions on race … a deeply serious, urgent book, which should take its place in the tradition of Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and King’s Why We Can’t Wait.” His book What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America has been called by Kirkus “an incisive look at the roles of politicians, artists, intellectuals, and activists in confronting racial injustice and effecting change” and “an eloquent response to an urgent – and still-unresolved – dilemma.”

Dyson’s remarkable rise from welfare father to Princeton Ph.D., from church pastor to college professor, and from a factory worker who began college at age 21, has led writer Naomi Wolf to call him “the ideal public intellectual of our time.”