Guest speaker: Melissa V. Harris Perry, Professor of Political Science at Tulane University and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race and Politics in the South.

Harris-Perry is author of the new book, Sister Citizen: Shame and Stereotypes, and Black Women in America which argues that persistent harmful stereotypes — invisible to many but painfully familiar to black women — profoundly shape black women’s politics, contribute to policies that treat them unfairly, and make it difficult for black women to assert their rights in the political arena. Her first book, Barbershops, Bibles and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, won the 2005 W.E.B. DuBois Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and a 2005 Best Book Award from the Race and Ethnic Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

As a contributor to MSNBC, Harris-Perry provides expert commentary on U.S. elections, racial issues, religious questions and gender concerns and she is a regular commentator for many print and radio sources in the U.S. and abroad.

Professor Harris-Perry received her B.A. in English from Wake Forest University, her Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University and an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School.

The event is free of charge and open to the public. Please call 314-362-6854 or send an email to diversity@msnotes.wustl.edu to RSVP.