Roosevelt Lectures

The Eleanor Roosevelt Lecture Series was created in 2004 to honor Eleanor Roosevelt’s commitment to social justice and her important place in women’s history.

First Lady and United Nations Ambassador Eleanor Roosevelt served on Brandeis University's Board of Trustees from 1949 until her death in 1962 and was Visiting Lecturer of International Relations from 1959-62.

She gave the university's first commencement address in 1952, receiving an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters in 1954.

Upcoming and Past Lectures

Poster for the lecture
Misogynoir: A Conversation With Professor Moya Bailey

October 18, 2022

Join Dr. Moya Bailey in discussion of "Misogynoir" with Brandeis students moderated by Professor V Chaudhry. Bailey is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. Her work focuses on Black women's use of digital media to promote social justice as acts of self-affirmation and health promotion. She is interested in how race, gender and sexuality are represented in media and medicine. She currently curates the #transformDH Tumblr initiative in Digital Humanities. She is a monthly sustainer of the Allied Media Conference through which she is able to bridge her passion for social justice and her work in digital humanities.

View the Conversation with Professor Bailey

Sponsored by the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Poster for the lecture
A Conversation With Akwaeke Emezi

October 26, 2021

An hourlong talk and conversation with author Akwaeke Emezi. A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree, Emezi was born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria. They were named one of "The New Hollywood Guard: Writers" by Vanity Fair and their romance debut, "You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty" is forthcoming from Atria Books in 2022. Their debut poetry collection, "Content Warning: Everything" is also forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2022, and their sophomore YA novel "Bitter" will be published in February 2022 by Knopf Books.

Sponsored by the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, the Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies Program and the Creative Writing Program.

Poster for the lecture
Black Privacy: A Mini-Symposium

March 17, 2021

A panel event to launch "Black Privacy," the special issue of The Black Scholar, co-edited by Professors Samantha Pinto and Shoniqua Roach. Panelists include:

  • Angela Davis '65
  • Johnnetta Cole
  • Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman
  • Simone Brown
  • Sarah Haley
  • Emily A. Owens
  • Samantha Pinto
  • Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Sponsored by the Department of African and African-American Studies and the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

First Woman of Color in Congress: Patsy Takemoto Mink’s Feminist Politics

October 23, 2019

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink

"She Knew Long Before of the Space in Between"

October 18, 2018

Maria Magdelena Campos-Pons

The Curious Cases of Gay Racism

March 13, 2017

Chong-suk Han

The Letters Behind My Name

October 28, 2015

College and Community Fellowship's Theater for Social Change

Sexual Violence on College Campuses: Confronting the Reality

October 21, 2015

David Lisak