INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Indiana Black Expo announced today that Professor Ibram X. Kendi and Dr. Marc Lamont Hill will keynote the Indiana University Education Conference scheduled on July 14 – July 16. This year marks IBE’s 13th annual conference designed to provide professional development for educators and administrators in K-12 and higher education institutions to enhance the academic, social and the overall well-being of Black students and other students of color. The free conference will be offered virtually this year.
“As our country recognizes and grasps the reality that racism has been ingrained in our systems for centuries, IBE and its partners are bringing the country’s most in-demand scholars on racism to help us understand how to strategically dismantle it, said IBE President & CEO Tanya Mckinzie. “As our city councils across the state declare racism as a public health crisis and our government and private sector leaders inquire about how they can help improve the conditions for Black Americans, we now have to collectively have some very courageous conversations and develop and implement laser-focused strategies on how to combat it,” added Mckinzie.
About Professor Ibram X. Kendi
Professor Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices. He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the Founding Director of The Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, DC. A professor of history and international relations, Kendi is a contributor at The Atlantic and CBS News. Beginning July 1, 2020, Kendi will become Professor of History and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He will also become the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study at Harvard University.
He is the author of The Black Campus Movement, which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize, and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2016. At 34 years old, Kendi was the youngest ever winner of the NBA for Nonfiction. He grew up dreaming about playing in the NBA (National Basketball Association), and ironically he ended up joining the other NBA.
His third book, How to Be an Antiracist, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, made several Best Books of 2019 lists. His much anticipated fourth book with Jason Reynolds, STAMPED: Racism, Antiracism, and You, debuted at # 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. His next book, Antiracist Baby, is scheduled to be published this month.
Kendi has published fourteen academic essays in books and academic journals, including The Journal of African American History, Journal of Social History, Journal of Black Studies, Journal of African American Studies, and The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture. He has published op-eds in numerous periodicals, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, London Review, Time, Salon, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Paris Review, Black Perspectives, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He commented on a series of international, national, and local media outlets, such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeerah, PBS, BBC, Democracy Now, and Sirius XM.
About Dr. Marc Lamont Hill
Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading intellectual voices in the country. Marc Lamont Hill is host of BET News and a Professor of Media Studies at Temple University. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller “Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond.” An award-winning journalist, Dr. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Hill is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. Prior to that, he held positions at Columbia University and Morehouse College.
Since his days as a youth in Philadelphia, Dr. Hill has been a social justice activist and organizer. He is a founding board member of My5th, a non-profit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. He is also a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union. Dr. Hill also works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project, focusing on drug informant policy. Over the past few years, he has actively worked on campaigns to end the death penalty and to release numerous political prisoners.
Ebony Magazine has named him one of America’s 100 most influential Black leaders.
Dr. Hill is the author or co-author of four books: the award-winning Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity; The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black life in America; the New York Times bestseller Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on The Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond; and Gentrifier. He has also published two edited books: Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility; and Schooling Hip-Hop: New Directions in Hip-Hop Based Education.
Trained as an anthropologist of education, Dr. Hill holds a Ph.D. (with distinction) from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the intersections between culture, politics, and education in the United States and the Middle East.
To register for the Indiana University Education Conference, visit https://www.indianablackexpo.com/education-conference/
About Indiana Black Expo, Inc.
Indiana Black Expo, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) statewide organization with 12 chapter affiliates. The mission of IBE is to serve as a voice and vehicle for the social and economic advancement of African-Americans. IBE is known for its two major fundraisers, Summer Celebration and Circle City Classic®. IBE provides year-round youth and family programs, including its recent Performing Arts Academy, Education Day (college fair), Summer Internship Program, Circle City Classic® Scholarship Fund, State of Our Black Youth Report and Initiative, Parent Leadership Academy, Statewide Anti-Tobacco Initiative, Education Conference, Youth Leadership Summit, Employment Opportunity Fair, and Minority Business Conference. IBE was recently recognized as “A Community to Watch” by the Obama Foundation for its work to eliminate barriers for African American males.
