MICHAEL ERIC DYSON TO DELIVER KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT CLAFLIN UNIVERSITY’S SPRING 2026 COMMENCEMENT CONVOCATION
Apr 24, 2026
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, a renowned professor, author, lecturer, and prominent media personality, will deliver the keynote address for Claflin University’s Spring 2026 Commencement Convocation on Saturday, May 9, at 10 a.m. in the Jonas T. Kennedy Health and Wellness Complex. Claflin will confer bachelor’s and master’s degrees to more than 230 graduating scholars.
Claflin will also honor alumni from the “Golden Class” of 1976.
The commencement convocation is a ticketed event. However, the live broadcast of the ceremony will be available on the University's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ClaflinUniversity1869/
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 presently Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, and Distinguished University Professor of Ethics and Society, The Divinity School, and NEH Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University. Dyson has authored over 25 books, including seven New York Times bestsellers. His esteemed literary output earned him the 2020 Langston Hughes Medal, which has previously been awarded to James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and August Wilson. Dyson has also won an American Book Award, a Southern Book Award, and two NAACP Image Awards.
Dyson has written bestselling volumes on Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, 2Pac, Marvin Gaye, Bill Cosby, and Barack Obama. Dyson’s book on Cosby, and his popular volume, Why I Love Black Women, both won prestigious NAACP Image Awards for nonfiction. Dyson’s New York Times bestselling book, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America, was a finalist for the prestigious 2016 Kirkus Prize. Dyson’s book, JAY-Z: Made in America, was also a New York Times bestseller.
Dyson has lectured across the country, and around the world and served for the last 30 years as a journalist, 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. Dyson has served as a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, as a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and a political analyst for MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News.
Dyson is an ordained minister and a native of Detroit, Michigan. He graduated magna cum laude from Carson-Newman College with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. He earned a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University.
