An Evening with Dr. Victor Ray

Next Page Books will host Dr. Victor Ray, University of Iowa associate professor and author of On Critical Race Theory: Why it Matters and Why You Should Care, at 7pm Wednesday, October 12 at CSPS Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

On Critical Race Theory explains the centrality of race in American history and politics, and how the often-mischaracterized intellectual movement became a political necessity.

Dr. Ray draws upon the radical thinking of giants such as Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to clearly trace the foundations of critical race theory in the Black intellectual traditions of emancipation and the civil rights movement. From these foundations, Ray explores the many facets of our society that critical race theory interrogates, from deeply embedded structural racism to the historical connection between whiteness and property, ownership, and more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in urban studies at Vassar, Ray earned his PhD from Duke University in 2014. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including American Sociological Review and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and his research has been funded by the Ford Foundation. His social and critical commentary has appeared in outlets such as The Washington Post, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review, and Boston Review.

In 2021, Ray was named to the F. Wendell Miller Associate Professorship at the University of Iowa. He serves on the faculty of the Department of Sociology and Criminology and the African American Studies Program.