Syracuse University’s 31^st annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Public Affairs Lecture will feature Barbara D. Savage, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The lecture, “Race, Religion, and Politics in the Age of Obama,” is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 26 and will be held in Maxwell Auditorium.

Sponsored by the Department of African American Studies (AAS) in The College of Arts and Sciences with additional financial support from the Office of the Chancellor, the lecture is free and open to the public.  Paid parking is available in the Booth Garage for $4.

Following the lecture, Savage will be on hand for a reception and available to sign copies of two of her acclaimed books, including the 2012 winner of the prestigious Grawemeyer Prize in Religion, “Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion” (Harvard University Press, 2008) and “Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race” (University of North Carolina Press, 1999), which won the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Award for the best book in American history in the 1916-1966 period.

A renowned scholar and highly-sought after educator who joined Penn in 1995, Savage’s research interests include twentieth century African American history, history of American religious and social reform movements and the history of the relationship between media and politics.

Savage’s awards include fellowship honors from the Smithsonian Institution, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University, the Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion, and the Scholars-in-Residence Program at the Schomburg Center on Black Culture of the New York Public Library. 

Savage received her doctorate in history from Yale in 1995, and also holds a law degree from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia. Prior to pursuing graduate school, she worked in Washington, DC as a Congressional staffer and as a member of the Children’s Defense Fund staff. While in grad school, Savage served as Director of Federal Relations in the Office of the General Counsel at Yale University.