The John Lax Memorial Lecture
The John Lax Memorial Lecture was endowed in 1982 by the late Professors Peter and Anneli Lax of New York University’s mathematics department, in memory of their son, John, a historian who taught at Mount Holyoke in the mid-1970s. After John Lax’s premature death, his parents created a permanent memorial in the form of this annual lecture. The Lax Lecture is given by a historian of the highest distinction to commemorate the work and spirit of John Lax by making the latest advances in history accessible to the public.
Past John Lax Lectures
2025 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Dylan C. Penningroth, Professor of Law and Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley, Affiliated Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation,and author, presented the 2025 John Lax Memorial Lecture, "Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights."
2024 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Ned Blackhawk, Howard R. Lamar Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, presented the 2024 John Lax Memorial Lecture, "Fighting Against Assimilation, Fighting for the Future: Native Activists in the Early 20th Century World."
2023 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, presented the 2023 John Lax Memorial Lecture, "Ukraine at War: Some reflections on the possibility of global history."
2022 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Priya Satia, Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History and Professor of History at Stanford University and author, presented the 2022 John Lax Memorial Lecture.
2021 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Ann Stoler, Willy Brandt Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and Historical Studies at The New School for Social Research, and director of the Institute for Critical Social Inquiry, presented the 2021 John Lax Memorial Lecture, "Weaponizing the Senses: Imperial Democracy on the Line."
2019 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Annette Gordon-Reed, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, gave the 2019 John Lax Memorial Lecture “The Hemings Family — Life after Monticello.”
2018 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Professor Perdue will discuss how the year 1900 was not only pivotal in the history of China, but also significant for the world of imperial powers.
2017 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Jean Allman, J.H. Hexter Professor of the Humanities, Department of History, Washington University in St. Louis delivered the 2017 John Lax Memorial Lecture, "A Post-Mortem of the African Revolution: Rethinking the Global Sixties."
2016 John Lax Memorial Lecture
Professor Tiya Miles's research interests include African American and Native American interrelated and comparative histories and women's literature. Miles is the Mary Henrietta Graham Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan.
2015 John Lax Memorial Lecture
John Merriman, Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale, is an eminent historian of modern France and Modern Europe.