The History Department is proud to welcome Angela Davis as the 2021 Ena H. Thompson Distinguished Lecturer. As we return to our in-person community, Professor Davis will join our campus for two public events on October 26 and 28, 2021.
Angela Davis is an internationally-known scholar and an icon in the movement to combat oppression in the U.S. and abroad. For more than a half century, her work as a writer, teacher, and activist has emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality.
Davis is the author of nine books and numerous articles. She is the author of the pathbreaking and widely-read Women, Race & Class (1983), as well as Women, Culture & Politics (1990) and Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (1999). She is a leader in the prisoner abolition movement, reflected in works like If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (1971), Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), and Abolition Democracy(2005). Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (2015) demonstrates why she is a world-renowned lecturer on liberation politics. In addition to her extensive literary output, Davis has been featured in a many films, such as Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 (2011); Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2013); and 13th (2016).
Angela Davis’ life in the movement is inseparable from her career in academia, making her a frequent target of institutional efforts seeking to repress the freedom struggle and speech. In 1969, when she was appointed to teach in the philosophy department at UCLA, then Governor Ronald Reagan and University of California leadership terminated her contract. Because of her support of George Jackson and the “Soledad Brothers,” Angela Davis found herself on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list in 1970. Her capture and arrest led to her eighteen-month incarceration and trial, during which she became the most famous political prisoner of her generation.
In 1972, she was acquitted of all charges. After her acquittal, Davis re-established her career in academia at an array of preeminent institutions, including The Claremont Colleges. She joined the Black Studies Center, the predecessor to the Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies in 1975. Once again, her hiring incited resistance from administrators, trustees, and donors, resulting in the termination of her appointment after two semesters.
Controversy may have followed Professor Davis wherever she taught but, despite this, she crafted a career of distinction of more than forty years. She held appointments at numerous prestigious institutions both in the US and abroad. Today, she is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she taught for seventeen years.
Professor Angela Davis will share her work and life with the Claremont College’s community when she visits in October 2021. Details about her events—including ticket information—will be released in fall. For the latest information, please follow the History Department at Pomona College Facebook page.
About the Lectureship
Endowed in 1980 through the generosity of Ena H. Thompson, these annual lectures encourage a broader understanding and appreciation of history. Generally held in the spring semester, the lectureship brings a distinguished historian to the Pomona College campus for a week of intensive interaction with students, faculty, and alumni. The visiting lecturers are elected both on the basis of their past contributions to the discipline and of the importance of their current research in advancing the field. Typically, they offer two public lectures on campus during the week of their residency and another lecture for alumni at a dinner event in the greater Los Angeles area.
Past Ena H. Thompson Distinguished Lecturers
2019 Kate Brown
2018 Andrew Bacevich
2017 James C. Scott
2016 Greg Grandin
2015 Kasia Cwiertka
2014 Tiya A. Miles
2013 Gail Hershatter
2012 Fred M. Donner
2011 Gilbert Gonzales
2010 Thomas R. Metcalf
2009 Louis A. Pérez, Jr.
2008 Pamela H. Smith
2007 David Roediger / Stanley Nelson
2006 Patricia Ebrey
2005 Dominick La Capra
2004 Robin D. G. Kelley
2003 Gilbert M. Joseph
2002 Patricia Nelson Limerick
2001 Linda Colley
2000 Vicki L. Ruiz / Antonia Castańeda
1999 Allan Bérubé
1998 Lynn Hunt
1997 Peter Brown
1996 Tetsuo Najita
1995 Ramón Eduardo Ruiz
1994 John Higginson
1993 G.W. Bowersock
1992 John H. Elliot
1991 Bernard Bailyn
1990 Ramón Gutiérrez
1989 Wolfgang J. Momsen
1988 Jonathan P. Spence
1987 A.W.B. Simpson
1986 Keith Thomas
1985 Natalie Zemon Davis
1984 Carl E. Schorske
1983 Richard Pipes
1982 Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
1981 Emmanuel Leroy Ladurie
1980 Peter Gay