Kenneth Spencer Lecture: An Evening with Writer, Artist, Theorist Tao Leigh Goffe

Tao Leigh Goffe is a critically acclaimed writer, theorist, interdisciplinary artist, and academic who specializes in colonial histories of race, geology, climate, and media technologies. She is the author of Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis (Doubleday, 2025), which Publishers Weekly called a “scintillating study” that “bursts with keen insights and connections” in a starred review. Dr. Goffe is the founder of the Dark Laboratory, an engine for the study of race, technology, and ecology through digital storytelling. She is also the Executive Director of the Afro-Asia Group, an organization that centers the intersections of African and Asian diasporas, futurity, and radical coalition toward sovereignty. Previously a fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School for 2024-2025, she is currently in residence as a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow for 2026-2027. She lives and works in Manhattan, where she is an Associate Professor at Hunter College, CUNY and CUNY Graduate Center in Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The Kenneth A. Spencer Lecture, presented by The Commons, is an endowed lecture dedicated to bringing leading thinkers across disciplines and ways of knowing, to address the University of Kansas and regional communities. In recent years, the lecture series has featured writer/historian Rebecca Solnit, poet/scholar/artist Eve L. Ewing, activist/writer Jose Antonio Vargas, author/illustrator/screenwriter Jonny Sun, writer/scientist/enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Robin Wall Kimmerer, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, poet/essayist Ross Gay, forager/land access advocate Alexis Nikole Nelson, poet/novelist/photographer/teacher Ocean Vuong, writer/activist Brea Baker, author Margaret Renkl, and mycologist/author Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian.

Reserve your ticket at: https://www.universe.com/taoleighgoffe