Harvard Professor, Author Discusses Civil Rights in Myers Lecture (Photos)
Brandon Terry, Ph.D., was the featured speaker at this year's Sondra H'87 and Morey Myers H'12 Distinguished Visiting Fellowship in the Humanities and Civic Engagement Lecture at The University of Scranton. Dr. Terry, who is Harvard University's John L. Loeb associate professor of the social sciences and co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American research, is the author of a book that appeared on The New York Times' "notable books of 2025" list.Brandon Terry, Ph.D., presented the Slattery Center for the Ignatian Humanities’ annual Sondra H’87 and Morey Myers H’12 Distinguished Visiting Fellowship in the Humanities and Civic Engagement Lecture on April 23.
Dr. Terry, Harvard University's John L. Loeb associate professor of the social sciences and co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, presented a lecture called “Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope,” which shared a name with his recently published book.
The 546-page book, published in October, which was selected by the New York Times as one of “100 notable books of 2025,” deals with the reality of the civil rights movement, trying to replace romanticized, idealistic visions of the movement with a more nuanced understanding.
According to the New York Times, “The civil rights movement has been enshrined in American history as an exemplary model of transformative social action. Terry, a Harvard scholar, upends the conventional wisdom, rejecting both romanticized versions of the past and pessimistic accounts of the present to offer a nuanced theory of the movement — and of social movements in general — predicated on a rigorous philosophical vision of what he calls ‘tragic hope.’”
The Myers lecture, which is housed in The University of Scranton’s Slattery Center for the Ignatian Humanities, works to advance the University’s efforts in bringing renowned scholars, artists and thinkers to campus to share their work and enrich cultural and civic activity.
Sondra Myers was a longtime director of the University’s Schemel Forum whose career has focused on strengthening democracy and civic engagement through cultural programming, public policy work and humanities scholarship. Morey Myers, a civil rights activist and accomplished jurist, is a graduate of the Yale University School of Law and Syracuse University.
