Jelani Cobb will bring a probing lens to race, immigration and democracy when he delivers Rice University’s 2025 fall Campbell Lecture Nov. 19-20 at 6 p.m. each night in the Pitman Cinema Theatre at Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall. His two talks promise to cast fresh light on some of the most volatile questions confronting the country today.
“Jelani Cobb brings both the rigor of a historian and the clarity of a journalist to some of the most pressing questions facing American democracy,” said Kathleen Canning, dean of the School of Humanities and Arts. “His work exemplifies the kind of interdisciplinary inquiry we value at Rice — engaging history, politics and media to help us better understand who we are and where we’re headed.”
Cobb, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism and the Henry R. Luce Professor at Columbia University, is a Peabody Award-winning journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker. His lectures will explore how shifting demographics fuel America’s current democratic challenges, especially in debates over race and immigration.
“Jelani Cobb is uniquely qualified to speak to our present moment,” said Fay Yarbrough, the William Gaines Twyman Professor of History and senior dean of humanities for faculty and graduate programs. “He’s a historian, so he understands, to borrow an overused term, how unprecedented today’s events are.”
Nov. 19, Cobb will present “American Exceptions: Notes on Race and the Crisis of Democracy,” arguing that the United States stands at a critical juncture rooted in unresolved questions dating to its founding and the Civil War — questions that continue to undergird political strife and test democratic norms.
His Nov. 20 lecture “Back Where You Came From: Immigration, Nativism and Anti-Democracy in the United States” will examine how demographic anxieties have long animated political conflict. Cobb will trace how nativist currents emerged in U.S. history, how they persist today and how they shape the fault lines of contemporary social discourse.
“In addition to being a historian, Professor Cobb is also the dean of the Columbia School of Journalism at a time when public trust in the press is very low and freedom of the press is precarious — and he leads a university that has been at ground zero of much student protest,” Yarbrough said. “I’m eager to hear what he has to say about these topics as well as about race and immigration, the subjects of his Campbell lectures. This promises to be an illuminating series of talks.”
The Campbell Lecture Series, coordinated by the School of Humanities and Arts Dean’s Office and supported by the Campbell Foundation, aims to bring distinguished scholars in arts, literature and humanities to Rice, fostering engagement between scholars and students. Past Campbell lecturers have included leading voices across disciplines, and this year’s program continues that tradition.
The lectures are free but require RSVP as seating is limited. Click here to reserve your spot.