2024-2025 Critical Conversations Speaker Series: Leah Wright Rigueur

The objective of the Critical Conversations Speaker Series is to foster an inclusive and intellectually stimulating environment at Quinnipiac, promoting inclusivity of thought, respectful dialogue, empathetic engagement, and open-mindedness among students, faculty, and staff.  The events are designed to empower participants to be better prepared to embrace inclusivity of thought by actively listening to and engaging with concepts and ideas that may challenge their personal values, without dismissing or silencing differing viewpoints. Leah Wright Rigueur is the SNF Agora Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the author of the award-winning book, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics & the Pursuit of Power. She is also a contributor and political analyst at CNN. Wright Rigueur is an expert on US political history, modern African American history, American presidential history, race, politics, and democracy, political ideologies and institutions, and modern social protest movements. Her new book project, Black Collar Criminals, explores the experience of the Black men and women who worked in the Reagan Administration and in corporate America during the 1980s and beyond.