Pulitzer winner to hold virtual lecture at Cornell

Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” and “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” will give the Cornell Center for Social Sciences’ (CCSS) Annual Distinguished Lecture in the Social Sciences in Partnership with Cornell Migrations, co-sponsored by the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity.

This virtual lecture will be held Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m.

Wilkerson has received critical acclaim for her work, including being the first African American woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize in journalism, which she won for her reporting work at The New York Times while she was the Chicago bureau chief. She is also the recipient of additional awards, such as the National Humanities Medal.

“The Warmth of Other Suns,” Wilkerson’s debut in narrative nonfiction, explores the motivations behind the Great Migration, a movement of which she is a daughter. She expertly intertwines historical context with the stories of Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Starling and Robert Foster as they fled the American South during the 20th century.

This highly praised work won the National Book Critics Award, the Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction, the Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize and the Lynton History Prize from Harvard and Columbia Universities.

Wilkerson’s second book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” became both a New York Times bestseller and a selection for Oprah’s Booklist since its publication in August 2020.

It presents an exceptional, rigorous analysis of systemic oppression in the United States beyond contemporary origins. Wilkerson looks at historical caste systems internationally in Germany, India and the United States and demonstrates ways they manifest and continue to relentlessly persist today.

With the high-profile killings of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of police and civilians, many Americans have noticed the current effects of the historical caste system in this country and wonder just how far we have really come since the days of Jim Crow.

As a result, the need for dialogue has never been more acute. In this timely lecture, Isabel Wilkerson addresses the persistence of racial injustice as a national challenge and what history can teach us as we work to resolve it.

This event is free and open to both Cornell and the greater Ithaca community. To register, please visit: ecornell.com/keynotes/overview/K102120. For more about Isabel Wilkerson, visit her website at isabelwilkerson.com.

The CCSS is committed to providing universal access to all of our events and facilities. For disability accommodations (e.g, sign language interpreters, alternative formats), please contact Katie Anderson at socialsciences@cornell.edu or 607-255-3408 as soon as possible.

Adelina Branescu is a student administrative assistant with the CCSS and a member of the Class of 2022, College of Arts and Sciences. East Hill Notes are published the first and third Wednesdays of each month in Tompkins Weekly.