‘The Half-Life of Freedom: Notes on Race, Media and Democracy’ with Jelani Cobb

Aug 13, 2020

Wallace House, in partnership with One Detroit and PBS Books, presents journalist and scholar Jelani Cobb, in conversation with Ford School dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”

Join Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for The New Yorker, as he examines race and the historic challenges to democracy, the impact of the media, and how these obstacles frame and inform our current moment.

About Jelani Cobb:

Jelani Cobb is the dean of Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he writes about race, politics, history and culture. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film “Whose Vote Counts” and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019.

He is the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” He is the editor or co-editor of several volumes, including “The Matter of Black Lives,” a collection of The New Yorker’s writings on race, and “The Essential Kerner Commission Report.” He is the producer or co-producer on a number of documentaries, including “Lincoln’s Dilemma,” “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union” and “Policing the Police.”

Dr. Cobb was educated at Jamaica High School in Queens, New York; Howard University, where he earned a B.A. in English; and Rutgers University, where he completed his M.A. and doctorate in American history in 2003. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.