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Professor Florence Wagman Roisman presented the 2020 “IUPUI Last Lecture.” Her presentation, titled “Is My Place in the Galley Still?” took place in a virtual format and was released November 6. It is available at this link.

Professor Roisman’s topic centered on this central thesis: “white supremacy and its cognates are the most destructive force on earth.” Her title comes from the poem “The Negro Hero” by Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Professor Roisman’s lecture focused on the most important task for all of us: to eliminate every trace of racism, misogyny, homophobia, islamophobia, anti-semitism – every notion that because of some immutable characteristic one human being is worth less than others. She is the William F. Harvey Professor of Law at IU McKinney. Professor Roisman is donating the honorarium from the lecture to the IU McKinney Student Emergency Fund.

The Last Lecture Series offers the university community the opportunity to hear reflections on life's lessons and meaning from a current or retired IUPUI colleague of exceptional merit. The featured speaker shares the wisdom he or she has gained through academic pursuits and life experiences; distilling a life of inquiry, reflection, and service into advice for successive generations.