2026 Fall Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Women's Right with M. Gessen

M. Gessen is an acclaimed journalist, author, and public intellectual whose work has profoundly shaped contemporary discussions on democracy, authoritarianism, human rights, and political transformation. The lecture will take place on Monday, October 5, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 127, Sterling Law Building, and will be hosted by Professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, Howard M. Holtzmann Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Director, Schell Center for International Human Rights, Yale Law School. A contributor to The New Yorker since 2014 and a staff writer from 2017 to 2024, M. Gessen is the author of eleven books, including Surviving Autocracy and The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, which received the 2017 National Book Award. Their reporting and commentary have appeared in The New York Review of Books and The New York Times, where they have written extensively on Russia, Ukraine, autocracy, LGBTQ rights, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. Alongside this work, Gessen has built a distinguished career in science journalism, covering topics including AIDS, medical genetics, and mathematics. Gessen is Distinguished Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and a Visiting Writer at Bard College. Their many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Nieman Fellowship, the John Chancellor Award, the Hitchens Prize, the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, a Polk Award, and an Overseas Press Club Award. Registration is required. Please register for the event by emailing the Gruber Program at [email protected]. This event is open to members of the Yale Community and invited guests only. A Yale ID is required for entry.