Annual Roger Wilkins Lecture

Tuesday, September 26, 2023 4:30 PM EDT
Harris Theater

Pulitzer Prize winner Matthew Desmond will be the featured speaker at George Mason University’s Roger Wilkins Lecture established in honor of the late Mason professor and civil rights leader. 

Desmond, whose new book Poverty, by America has been on the best-seller’s list this spring and summer, is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. His research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. 

The Roger Wilkins Lecture, presented by Mason’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, is named in honor of the late Robinson Professor of History and American Culture. Wilkins, a civil rights activist and first black assistant attorney general, served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. 

The free event is open to students, faculty, staff, alumni and all members of the Mason community. Doors open at 4:00 p.m.