2026 Humanities Symposium Keynote Lecture

"Life, Liberty, and the Unfinished Work of Democracy"

A renowned scholar and public historian, David W. Blight is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom and has written extensively on slavery, the Civil War, and historical memory. Dr. Blight will deliver the 2026 Humanities Symposium keynote on Thursday, March 12th.

Dr. Blight is Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. He previously taught at Amherst College and has held distinguished fellowships at Cambridge University, the Huntington Library, and the New York Public Library. In 2020, Yale President Peter Salovey appointed him as chair of the Yale and Slavery Working Group. With his Working Group colleagues, Blight authored the book Yale and Slavery: A History, a narrative study of Yale’s historic involvement and associations with slavery and its aftermaths, published by Yale University Press in February 2024. He has served as president of both the Organization of American Historians and the Society of American Historians, and continues to shape public history through his books, public lectures, advisory roles, and consulting for documentary films.

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