Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian Speaks at Baylor for 2026 Beall-Russell Lecture

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Annette Gordon-Reed will give the 2026 Beall-Russell Lecture in the Humanities at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, October 1, in Room 506 of Cashion Academic Center on the Baylor University campus. She will speak on “The Story of Our Founding, and Its Impact for Us Today.”

Gordon-Reed is a professor of history in the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She is also the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School, the President of the Organization of American Historians, and the award-winning author of six books.

Her first New York Times bestselling book, “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” won the Pulitzer Prize for history and the National Book Award for nonfiction — along with 14 other awards. It explores the inconsistencies of Thomas Jefferson’s stance on slavery and his relationship with enslaved woman Sally Hemings. The Chicago Tribune said that the book “stands dramatically apart for its searching intelligence and breadth of humane vision.”

"On Juneteenth," a memoir written by Gordon-Reed, sets out to capture the importance of the holiday to American history. A New York Times bestseller, it was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times (which chose it as one of its five best non-fiction books of the year), The Washington Post, TIME and NPR, among others. She was one of the guests invited to attend the ceremony in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed into law a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Her honors include the National Humanities Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. Gordon-Reed was also elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the Academy’s Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society. 

"The Beall-Russell Lectures in the Humanities program has brought renowned, award-winning scholars to campus and has demonstrated the enduring relevance of the humanities to contemporary life," said Kim Kellison, Ph.D., chair of the lecture series and associate dean for humanities and social sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences. "Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed joins this distinguished tradition. As a professor of law and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, she examines the intersections of race, history and law, challenging audiences to consider how the complexities of the past shape the human experience in the present."

The Beall-Russell Lectures in the Humanities were established in 1982 with a financial gift from Virginia B. Ball of Muncie, Indiana. She named the lecture series in honor of her mother, Mrs. John A. Beall, and Lily Russell, former dean of women at Baylor, both Baylor alumnae of the Class of 1910. Past lecturers have included poet Maya Angelou, journalist Bill Moyers, historian David McCullough, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, musician Wynton Marsalis and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Czeslaw Milosz.

For more information, visit the Beall-Russell Lectures website at beallrussell.web.baylor.edu.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and 24 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 12 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.