Established in 1997 by Ellen Agress, the Vivian R. Shaw Lecture is presented biennially by IRWG and Women’s and Gender Studies. The lecture was created to address “real world issues” related to women and gender and has brought distinguished scholars, writers, and public intellectuals to the University of Michigan for nearly three decades.
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is an essayist, novelist, poet, and student of United States history whose work illuminates the intersections of race, gender, memory, and social justice. She is the author of seven books spanning poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her debut novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, was an instant New York Times bestseller, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, and a recipient of numerous honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The novel has been celebrated as one of the most significant works of contemporary American literature, earning recognition from The Atlantic, Time, NPR, and The New York Times.
An award-winning poet, Jeffers is also the author of The Age of Phillis, a groundbreaking collection based on fifteen years of archival research into the life and legacy of Phillis Wheatley Peters, the first Africana woman to publish a book in the Americas. The collection received the NAACP Image Award for Poetry and the Lenore Marshall Prize and has become a widely taught text in classrooms across the United States.
Jeffers serves as Editor-at-Large for The Kenyon Review and has received fellowships from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Library of Congress. Her contributions to literature and scholarship have been recognized with the Harper Lee Award for Literary Distinction and induction into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.
Join us for an engaging conversation with one of the nation’s most celebrated literary voices as she reflects on history, storytelling, identity, and the enduring significance of women and gender in shaping our understanding of the world.
