The Black Life and Letters Lecture Series in Honor of William W. Cook
This lecture series brings together poets, writers, critics, and scholars to celebrate and promote the scholarship Cook championed at Dartmouth.
William W. Cook
William W. Cook was the Israel Evans Professor of Oratory and Belles Lettres Emeritus at Dartmouth College, where he served as chair of the Departments of English and African and African American Studies. A pioneering scholar in Black Studies, Bill brought a wide-ranging integrative approach to literature. This lecture series brings together poets, writers, critics, and scholars to celebrate and promote the scholarship Bill championed at Dartmouth.
William W. Cook Lectures 2009 - Present
2026 — Wendy Walters, "That Abominable Music; or On Interference"
2025 — Kwame Dawes, "The Negro Artist and the NEW Racial Mountain: Revisiting Langston Hughes in the 21st Century"
2023 — Christina Sharpe (postponed)
2022 — Evie Shockley, "Black Graphics"
2019 — Farah Jasmine Griffin, "The Question of Mercy Reflections on African American Literature from Phillis Wheatley to Toni Morrison"
2018 — Tina Campt, "Still Moving Images"
2017 — James Tatum and the Ad Hoc Players
2016 — Frank Wilderson III '78, "Afro-Pessimism & the Paradox of Affirmation”
2015 — Fred Moten
2014 — Stephen Best
2013 — Brent Edwards
2012 — Emily Greenwood
2011 — Monica L. Miller
2010 — Jay Parini
2009 — Ishmael Reed