Ena H. Thompson Lectures

2025 Ena H. Thompson Distinguished Lecture

Ned Blackhawk

Professor Ned Blackhawk, the Howard R. Lamar Professor of History at Yale University, is an internationally-known scholar of Native American history. For more than two decades, his work as a writer, teacher, and activist have emphasized the importance of centering Native Nations in the struggles over Native land, children, and sovereignty. Join us as he visits Â鶹´«Ã½.

“A Night with Ned Blackhawkâ€
7 p.m., Thursday, January 30, 2025
Rose Hills Theater, Smith Campus Center

Alumni/Community Dinner and Lecture
Friday, January 31, 2025, 5 - 9 p.m.
Bridges Auditorium Foyer, Â鶹´«Ã½
(Invite Only)

About the Lectureship

Endowed in 1980 through the generosity of Ena H. Thompson, these annual lectures encourage a broader understanding and appreciation of history. Generally held in the spring semester, the lectureship brings a distinguished historian to the Â鶹´«Ã½ campus for a week of intensive interaction with students, faculty, and alumni. The visiting lecturers are elected both on the basis of their past contributions to the discipline and of the importance of their current research in advancing the field. Typically, they offer two public lectures on campus during the week of their residency and another lecture for alumni at a dinner event in the greater Los Angeles area.

Past Ena H. Thompson Distinguished Lecturers

2020s

2024 Shadia Taha / Stuart T. Smith
2023 Kelly Lytle Hernández
2022 Natalia Molina
2021 Angela Davis

2010s

2019 Kate Brown
2018 Andrew Bacevich​
2017 James C. Scott
2016 Greg Grandin
2015 Kasia Cwiertka
2014 Tiya A. Miles
2013 Gail Hershatter
2012 Fred M. Donner
2011 Gilbert Gonzales
2010 Thomas R. Metcalf

2000s

2009 Louis A. Pérez, Jr.
2008 Pamela H. Smith
2007 David Roediger / Stanley Nelson
2006 Patricia Ebrey
2005 Dominick La Capra
2004 Robin D. G. Kelley
2003 Gilbert M. Joseph
2002 Patricia Nelson Limerick
2001 Linda Colley
2000 Vicki L. Ruiz / Antonia Castańeda

1990s

1999 Allan Bérubé
1998 Lynn Hunt
1997 Peter Brown
1996 Tetsuo Najita
1995 Ramón Eduardo Ruiz
1994 John Higginson
1993 G.W. Bowersock
1992 John H. Elliot
1991 Bernard Bailyn
1990 Ramón Gutiérrez

1980s

1989 Wolfgang J. Momsen
1988 Jonathan P. Spence
1987 A.W.B. Simpson
1986 Keith Thomas
1985 Natalie Zemon Davis
1984 Carl E. Schorske
1983 Richard Pipes
1982 Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
1981 Emmanuel Leroy Ladurie
1980 Peter Gay