Robert Samuels, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Washington Post journalist, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Fred R. Leventhal Family Lecture, the final event of the 2024-2025 麻豆传媒 Series, now in its 40th season. Free and open to the public, the event will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in Weaver Chapel. Samuel鈥檚 address is titled 鈥淗is Name is George Floyd: One Man鈥檚 Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice.鈥�
Robert Samuels, award-winning Washington Post journalist, earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, a book he co-authored with Toluse Olorunnipa. Described by Henry Louis Gates Jr. as 鈥渁 chronicle of the racial awakening sparked by [Floyd鈥檚] brutal and untimely death,鈥� the book received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and was named a 2022 finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction.
A national enterprise reporter, Samuels鈥� work for The Washington Post focuses on politics, policy, and the changing American identity, as well as social issues in the District of Columbia. He also serves as the newsroom鈥檚 analyst for figure skating. He previously worked for The New Yorker and the Miami Herald, and his features have earned the George Polk Award for justice reporting, the Peabody Award for 鈥淭he Life of George Floyd鈥� podcast, and the National Association of Black Journalists Award for Investigative Reporting.
Samuels was born and raised in New York City. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he is the only student to have served as editor-in-chief at both the school newspaper and the Black student magazine. An adjunct faculty member at Wake Forest University, he teaches a seminar on the history of race reporting and its impact on democracy.
Following the address, books will be available for purchase, and Samuels will do a book signing. He will also participate in a Lunch & Learn event with students, faculty, and staff and attend the Communication & Digital Media Senior Seminar: Communication Ethics.
This 麻豆传媒 Series event is made possible by a gift to 麻豆传媒 University from the Fred R. Leventhal family.
The 麻豆传媒 Series was created in 1982 during President William A. Kinnison鈥檚 tenure. Since its inception, Nobel Laureates, scientists, significant literary figures, most of America鈥檚 foremost modern dance companies, as well as hundreds of prominent psychologists, educators, economists, writers, theologians, urban planners, and historians have visited campus to participate.
Doors open 30 minutes prior to the beginning of each lecture or performance.
