George Wright, noted African-American scholar and president of Prairie View A&M, will speak at North Dakota State University Friday, Sept. 21, at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Union Century Theater. His presentation is titled “The Value of Diversity in American Society: The Personal Odyssey of George C. Wright.” The event is free and open to the public.
Wright leads Prairie View A&M University, one of the country’s historically black colleges and universities and the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas. The university has a reputation for producing thousands of African-American engineers, nurses and educators.
A native of Lexington, Ky., Wright earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Kentucky and his doctorate in history from Duke University. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Kentucky.
His teaching experience began in 1977 as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. In 1980, he began teaching at the University of Texas at Austin where he would eventually become a full professor and the holder of the Mastin Gentry White Professorship of Southern History. In 1993, he joined the faculty at Duke University as vice provost for undergraduate programs, director of the Afro-American studies program and held the William R. Kenan, Jr., Chair in American history.
Wright has received numerous teaching awards and is the author of three books on race relations.
His presentation is sponsored by the Division of Equity, Diversity and Global Outreach.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.