The Black Women Leaders of Prominence Series: What Would Zora Do? Musings of Race in America by Lucy Anne Hurston
A special lecture by the niece of Legendary Author and Anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston.
About the featured speaker:
Professor Lucy Anne Hurston, the niece of famed Anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, is a social scientist committed to the parallel discipline, "Sociology: the Study of Social Behavior Within and Between Groups." Lucy’s research is deeply connected to questions her aunt raised decades ago focused on race, ethnicity, and culture. Bringing these issues to the forefront in numerous arenas, Lucy explores the social world around her, centering, identifying, describing, and eventually solving social problems in her orbit.
As owner of Hurston Research LLC for over 23 years, Lucy has played a critical role in exploring and disseminating Zora's knowledge through her research. She also continues to advocate for social change and equity in her volunteer work which centers on survival support systems of food and housing.
About the host:
Dr. Melanie R. Hill is Assistant Professor of English Literature, Music, Theology and American Studies at Rutgers—Newark, and Mellon Assistant Professor of Global Racial Justice and ISGRJ Named Term Chair. Dr. Hill's transdisciplinary research focuses on the intersections of literature, music, and theology, covering such topics as Black feminism, womanist thought, and the element of the sermon in African American literature. With articles published on Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, and the sermon as sonic art in James Baldwin’s "The Amen Corner," Dr. Hill's forthcoming book, Colored Women Sittin’ on High: Womanist Sermonic Practice in Literature and Music, is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press (UNC Press). Colored Women Sittin' on High focuses on the ways in which Black women preachers in African American literature, music, and in the space of the pulpit counter social injustices through sermon and song. She received her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania with graduate certificates in Africana Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
In addition to her scholarship, Dr. Hill is a Gospel Soul violinist who has performed at the White House on two occasions under the Obama administration, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Apollo Theater in New York, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and for Pope Francis's Papal Mass during his historic visit to the United States.
