MICHAEL ERIC DYSON

​Michael Eric Dyson is one of the nation’s most renowned professors, gifted writers, inspiring preachers, knowledgeable lecturersand riveting media personalities. As a professor who earned a PhD in Religion from Princeton University, Dyson has taught at some of the nation’s most distinguished universities, including Brown, UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, DePaul, the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University. He is currently the Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, and Centennial Professor at Vanderbilt University.

As a writer of more than 20 books, New York Times bestsellersThe Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America; and, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, that was called by the New York Times,” one of the most frank and searing discussions on race…a deeply serious, urgent book, which should take its place in the tradition of Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and King’s Why We Can’t Wait.” His latest book, “Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America” published December 2020 was heralded as Amazon’s Bestselling Book for 2020.

Dyson has lectured across the country, and around the world, in many of the best colleges and universities, and in public theaters and auditoriums, and for many corporations and unions. He has also served for the last 30 years as a media commentator and host, on every major radio and television show, from NPR’s Morning Edition, The Takeaway,and Fresh Air with Terry Gross, to television’s Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Today Show, Good Morning America, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and as a political analyst on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.

Career

Dyson has taught at Chicago Theological Seminary, Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University, DePaul University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Since 2007, he has been a Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. His 1994 book Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X became a New York Times notable book of the year. In his 2006 book Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, Dyson analyzes the political and social events in the wake of the catastrophe against the backdrop of an overall “failure in race and class relations”. In 2010, Dyson edited Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic, with contributions based on the album’s tracks by, among others, Kevin Coval, Kyra D. Gaunt (“Professor G”), dream hampton, Marc Lamont Hill, Adam Mansbach, and Mark Anthony Neal. Dyson’s own essay in this anthology, “‘One Love,’ Two Brothers, Three Verses”, argues that the current US penal system disfavors young black males more than any other segment of the population. His last three books appeared repeatedly on the “New York Times” Bestseller list. Dyson hosted a radio show, which aired on Radio One, from January 2006 to February 2007. He is also a commentator on National Public Radio, MSNBC and CNN, and is a regular guest on Real Time with Bill Maher. Beginning July 2011 Michael Eric Dyson became a political analyst for MSNBC. He recently drew media attention for his speech at the funeral of Aretha Franklin on August 31, 2018.

The Michael Eric Dyson Show

The Michael Eric Dyson Show radio program debuted on April 6, 2009, and is broadcast from Morgan State University. The show’s first guest was Oprah Winfrey,^[19] to whom Dyson dedicated his book Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson. The show appears to have been discontinued with its last episode being in December 2011.

Awards and Nominations

Why I Love Black Women
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction, 2004, WINNER

Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction, 2006, WINNER

Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction, 2007, Nominee
American Book Award, 2007, WINNER

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
Southern Book Prize– Non-Fiction, 2018, WINNER