Bunche Chair Lecture

The Bunche Chair Lecture series was inaugurated in 2006 and is held most years to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Ralph J. Bunche. The Ralph J. Bunche Endowed Chair in International Studies (currently unfilled) was supported by a major donor and hundreds of alumni and community members in the name of one of the truly monumental figures in UCLA’s history. Dr. Bunche, who served as valedictorian of UCLA’s 1927 class, eventually went on to become a pioneering scholar of race, outspoken activist, and the first African American Nobel Prize winner. Administered by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the Bunche Chair endowment will support the recruitment of a distinguished scholar whose work resonates with the life and work of Dr. Bunche.

Previous Lecturers

2006 — Randall Robinson

2007 — Dr. Robin Kelley

2008 — Anna Deaveare Smith

2010 — Dr. Charles Henry