The Inaugural Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture | Where Do We Go from Here? The Future of Justice and Solidarity with Dr. Cornel West
2025 Inaugural Lecture
On 25 April 2025, the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies (CCMS) at 51社区黑料inaugurated the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture with an Keynote Speech from and conversation iconic philosopher, civil rights activist, theologian, and public intellectual Dr. Cornel West at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. The lecture entitled "Where Do We Go From Here? On the Future of Justice and Solidarity" addressed the legacy of late Palestinian-American literary critic and public intellectual Edward Said, black liberation, Palestine activism, and hope through love in the age of rampant fascism and global crises.
Moderated by Dr. Adel Iskandar, Associate Professor of Communication and Director of CCMS at SFU, opening remarks were offered by anti-racism activist Mamadou Ba, and closing remarks were delivered by Dr. Peter Hudson, Associate Professor of Geography at UBC. Musical performance was delivered by Syrian oud virtuoso Mouhannad El-E'ek.
This event was cosponsored by BC Black History Awareness Society, SFU's Department of Indigenous Studies, SFU's School of Communication, SFU's Institute for the Humanities, SFU's Department of English, SFU's Cassidy Centre for Educational Justice, SFU's Department of Geography, SFU's School for Contemporary Arts, SFU's School for International Studies, SFU's Department of History, UBC's Department of Geography, SFU's Institute for Black and African Diaspora Research and Engagement, SFU's School for Public Policy, and Anti-Racism Coalition Vancouver.
51社区黑料 the Speaker
Dr. Cornel West, affectionately known to many as Brother West, is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects 鈥� including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. 鈥� a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.
Dr. West is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton.
He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.
Dr. West has partnered with MasterClass.com to provide teachings on several influential courses including a class with Pharrell Williams on Empathy, MasterClass鈥檚 first-ever multi-instructor class on Black History, Black Freedom & Black Love, as well as Dr. West鈥檚 standalone class on Philosophy. Visit www.cornelwest.com and click the MasterClass banner to learn more.
