The 14th annual Hiett Prize in the Humanities has been awarded by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture to Christopher J. Lebron, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and author of ‘The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of An Idea.‘ The prize is presented to a person working in the humanities who has not yet reached his or her potential but whose work shows extraordinary promise.

Lebron’s Ph.D. is from MIT in the fields of social theory and political philosophy, and his work has been on political philosophy. His first book was  ‘The Color of Our Shame: Race and Justice in Our Time,‘ which won the American Political Association Foundations of Political Theory First Book Prize, and he’s written for ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The Chronicle of Higher Education.’ Here is his essay ‘What’s in a Name?’ for billmoyers.com, which is about re-naming university buildings that were initially dedicated to major slaveholders and Confederate leaders.

Lebron will receive the Hiett Prize November 7th and speak that evening at a public forum at the Dallas Institute. Here he is speaking two years ago in a panel for the Democracy in Dialogue Project:

And here’s the full press release from John Hopkins University.