2021 Mary Higgins Clark Chair, Keynote & High Tea in the Garden

The English Department is pleased to announce that our 2021 Mary Higgins Clark Chair is acclaimed YA author, Angie Thomas. In her keynote speech, The Hate U Give Finding Your Activism and Turning the Political into the Personal, she’ll trace the development of her captivating debut, The Hate U Give—and in so doing, speaks to the heart of race, activism, and social change in America today. RSVP for her talk and our High Tea Gala forthcoming in Fall 2021.

ANGIE THOMAS’ debut novel, The Hate U Give, has spent more than three years on The New York Times bestseller list, where it was joined by her second novel, On the Come Up, and now her third, Concrete Rose. Blockbuster books and two major film adaptations have amplified Thomas’ clear, crucial voice where we need it most—to #BlackLivesMatter protesters, igniting real change in the fight for racial justice, and through the chaos of a global pandemic that is disproportionately hurting people of color. Her keynotes are powerful, urgent, necessary, and most importantly, hopeful.