The Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Zora Neale Hurston lecture seeks to facilitate the cultivation of scholarship by drawing attention to the function of grounding, translation, and expertise in scholarly and professional practice. It is named in honor of Zora Neale Hurston, the most prolific African-American woman writer of her time or earlier. Using the power of her imagery and the richness of the cultures she brought to life through her writings, Hurston continues to serve as an inspiration for those seeking to fulfill their intellectual curiosity.
Michael Awkward, Director of what was then the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies initiated the ZNH Lecture in 1994 with a presentation by Arnold Rampersad on the work of writer Langston Hughes, a Hurston colleague. Over the past 20 years, the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies has continually sought to engage prominent public intellectuals from across the globe to speak on a topic of their choice in Hurston’s honor. Speakers such as Alice Walker, former Director Ali Mazrui, Geneva Smitherman, Mary Frances Berry, Cheryl Wall, Brenda Gottschild Dixon, Lorna Goodison, Dorothea Smartt, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Sharon Holland and others have shared their perspective on a wide variety of subjects. In doing so, these scholars exemplify Hurston’s insatiable inquisitiveness as she once noted, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”