2023-2024 Season
The 2023-2024 Neilly Author Series season is presented by River Campus Libraries, Frederick Douglass Institute, and Department of Black Studies.
Julius B. Fleming, Jr | Associate Professor of English, University of Maryland
Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation
Date: October 12, 2023
Time: 6 PM
Location: Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library, and via Zoom
Joy James | Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities, Williams College
In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love: Precarity, Power, Communities
Date: November 30, 2023
Time: 6 PM
Location: Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library, and via Zoom
William Sturkey | Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White
Date: February 22, 2024
Time: 6 PM
Location: Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library, and via Zoom
Rinaldo Walcott | Professor of African and American Studies, University at Buffalo
The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom
Date: March 21, 2024
Time: 6 PM
Location: Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library, and via Zoom
Additional support from the Office of Alumni Relations and Constituent Engagement.
View past seasons of the Neilly Speaker Series
About Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly
In a wonderful millennium gift, Life Trustee Andrew H. Neilly and his wife, Janet, established a named, endowed library position at the University of Rochester with a $1 million gift. The Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of River Campus Libraries Endowment is used by the dean to support library programs designed to contribute to the intellectual life of the University and to enhance the libraries' collections related to academic initiatives. With this purpose, the Neilly Series was established in 2001.
The libraries have been the focus of Andy Neilly's interest at the University for many years. During the University's Campaign for the '90s, Andy and his co-chair and good friend, Jack Keil, raised several million dollars in support of the libraries.
A graduate of the Class of 1947, Andy had a distinguished career in the field of publishing, serving as president, CEO, and vice chairman of the board of John Wiley & Sons in New York City before his retirement in 1995. Both he and Janet grew up in Rochester. Janet attended William Smith College and Northwestern University. She is a founder of Connecticut Hospice.
Andy has noted on many occasions:
The library is the key to the University. It is the center for everything else that happens here.
