Jarvis R. Givens is a professor of Education and African & African American Studies at Harvard University, and he specializes in 19th and 20th century African American history and theories of race, power, and schooling. Professor Givens is the author of three books, American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation, published by Harper in 2025, School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness, published by Beacon Press in 2023, and Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, published by Harvard University Press in 2021. He is also completing a fourth book entitled I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month  which will be released by Harper in February 2026.

Professor Givens earned his PhD in African American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and his research has been published in several outlets, including The Atlantic, LA Review of Books, American Education Research Journal, Souls, Harvard Educational Review, and The Journal of African American History.

Books will be available for purchase at the event!

Supported in part through funding from the Office of the Provost: Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program