Annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture

Previous Lectures


2022 | Clint Smith
“Race, Memory, and Public History”

2021 | David Silberklang, Ph.D.
“Responsible for Each Other: Mutual Assistance and Maintaining Human Dignity in the Holocaust”

2020 | Sr. Norma Pimentel, M.J.
Justice at the Border: The Dignity of Human Life at the Core of our Faith

2019 | Rev. Maurice Henry Sands
Act Justly: Healing Racism through Faith

2018 | Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Reawakening the American Heart

2017 | Scott Alexander, Ph.D. and Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini 
The Challenge of Peace Pursued through Christian-Muslim Dialogue

2016 | Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, RN, MS
Catholic Health Care’s Role in Integral Human Development

2015 | Christiana Peppard, Ph.D
Integral Ecology: Pope Francis, Ethical Pluralism, and the Planet

2014 | Rev. Greg Boyle, SJ
Joy and Hope in the Hood

2013 | Clemens Sedmak, Ph.D.
The Deep Practice of Human Dignity

2012 | Sr. Joan Chittister, O.S.B.
An Uncommon Search for the Common Good

2011 | Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J.
Building Justice in the World: Confronting Evil

The annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture was created by the Center for Social Concerns in 2009 in order to highlight justice issues and themes related to the common good. The fall event honors Fr. Bernie who died young but influenced students with the life lesson of a “Theory of Enough.”  Past speakers have included scholars and practitioners working to create a more just future for all. 

2023 Annual Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture

featuring Colson Whitehead

Tuesday, October 3, 2023 | 5:00 p.m.
Patricia George Decio Theatre, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center

This is a free but ticketed event. Tickets will be available for pickup at the DeBartolo ticket office one hour prior to the event. There are no advanced reservations for this event and tickets are limited to two per person.

Reception to follow. Introduction by John McGreevy, Charles and Jill Fischer Provost.

Colson Whitehead is the author of The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys, Harlem Shuffle, and Crook Manifesto.

The Underground Railroad won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Carnegie Medal for Fiction, and was a #1 New York Times Bestseller.

The Nickel Boys won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

Colson Whitehead’s reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta.

He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

In 2018, New York State named him their New York State Author, and in 2020 the Library of Congress awarded him their Prize for American Fiction.

Co-sponsors: Catholic Social Tradition Minor; Department of Africana Studies; Department of American Studies; Department of Anthropology; Department of English; Department of Film, Television, & Theatre; Department of History; Initiative on Race and Resilience; Office of the Provost