Award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead to visit Notre Dame
Renowned author Colson Whitehead will visit the University of Notre Dame on Oct. 3 (Tuesday) to deliver the 2023 Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture at 5 p.m. in the Patricia George Decio Theatre of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
The annual lecture was created in 2009 to highlight justice issues and themes related to human dignity and the common good. John McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University, will introduce Whitehead.
The event is free and open to the public. Tickets will be available starting one hour beforehand at the box office of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
“Whitehead is a perfect choice for the Bernie Clark Lecture,” said Suzanne Shanahan, the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the Center for Social Concerns. “Whether he’s writing about the renaming of a New England town founded by Black settlers, a Black community in the Hamptons in the 1980s, or Harlem in the ’60s and ’70s, Whitehead’s novels show us communities where some of the deepest questions of dignity and justice are playing out in ways that are sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying and always revealing.”
Whitehead is the author of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent works include “The Underground Railroad,” “The Nickel Boys,” “Harlem Shuffle” and “Crook Manifesto.”
“The Underground Railroad,” a novel published in summer 2016, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction and was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Based on events at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida, Whitehead’s novel “The Nickel Boys” was published in 2019 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Kirkus Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Whitehead’s reviews, essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
In 2018, he was named New York State Author, and in 2020 the Library of Congress awarded him its Prize for American Fiction.
This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Catholic Social Tradition Minor; Department of Africana Studies; Department of American Studies; Department of Anthropology; Department of English; Department of Film, Television and Theatre; Department of History; Initiative on Race and Resilience; and the Office of the Provost.
Learn more at socialconcerns.nd.edu/bernieclark/.
Latest ND News Wire
- Notre Dame Forum to present ‘Fr. TED Talks’ on Catholic social tradition, featuring President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., and Dr. Jim O’ConnellHonoring the legacy of legendary University of Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum will host “Fr. TED Talks: Ideas from the Catholic Social Tradition That We Find Inspiring,” a two-night festival on Oct. 28 and 29.
- ‘Great powers don’t mind their own business’: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warns of perils of US isolationism at Notre Dame Forum eventAs part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum, Condoleezza Rice, the 66th U.S. Secretary of State, the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and a University of Notre Dame alumna, returned to campus Friday (Oct. 11) to speak to an overflow crowd of more than 1,000 people in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and hundreds more online.
- Architect Doug Marsh, ‘most impactful builder in Notre Dame’s history,’ to retire after 30-year University careerUniversity of Notre Dame Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan has announced that Doug Marsh, vice president for facilities design and operations and University architect,…
- Alumna Jessica Ashman, doctoral candidate Maria Caterina Gargano named Fulbright-John Lewis Civil Rights FellowsUniversity of Notre Dame alumna Jessica Ashman and graduate student Maria Caterina “Cat” Gargano have been selected as Fulbright-John Lewis Civil Rights Fellows for the 2024-25 academic year. Established through bipartisan legislation in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate,…
- Economist Kirk Doran wins UK’s Panmure House Prize honoring interdisciplinary researchKirk Doran, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Notre Dame, has won the 2024 Adam Smith Panmure House Prize. The prize, named after the forefather of economics, celebrates those who embody Smith’s empiricism and long-term interdisciplinary thinking in their research.
- Notre Dame expands military support with mental health and leadership courses in partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy NetworkThis fall, the University’s long history of support for the armed forces, veterans and their families will be extended to a new partnership with the Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to create stronger military families through education, empowerment and support.