Race, Media, and Justice: How Images Shape Our World

Co-sponsored by The Harvard Club of Southern California and Hollywood, Health & Society.

Join renowned scholar and cultural historian Sarah Lewis AB '01 and acclaimed producer and entrepreneur Franklin Leonard AB '00 for an insightful conversation exploring the power of visual culture and storytelling in shaping perceptions of race, equity, and justice. Drawing from their groundbreaking work in academia, the arts, and Hollywood, they’ll discuss how images—whether in photography, media, or film—have impacted narratives of racial identity and social change. From the influence of historical representations to contemporary media's role in framing justice, their conversation will offer an engaging dialogue on the intersection of race, visual culture, and the pursuit of a more equitable society.

Sarah Lewis AB '01 is the founder of Vision & Justice and the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America (Harvard University Press), the bestseller, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery (Simon & Schuster), and the forthcoming book Vision & Justice (One World/Random House). Lewis is the editor of the award-winning volumes, “Vision & Justice” by Aperture magazine and the anthology on the work of Carrie Mae Weems (MIT Press). She is the organizer of the landmark Vision & Justice Convening at Harvard University, and co-editor of the Vision & Justice Book Series, launched in partnership with Aperture. Her awards include the Infinity Award, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Cullman Fellowship, the Freedom Scholar Award (ASALH), the Arthur Danto/ASA Prize from the American Philosophical Association, and the Photography Network Book Prize. Her writing has been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Artforum, and the New York Review of Books, and her work has been the subject of profiles from The Boston Globe to the New York Times. Lewis is a sought-after public speaker, with a mainstage TED talk that received over 3 million views. She received her BA from Harvard University, an MPhil from Oxford University, an MA from Courtauld Institute of Art, and her PhD from Yale University. She lives in New York City and Cambridge, MA.

Franklin Leonard AB '00 is a film and television producer, cultural commentator, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the Black List, a company dedicated to identifying and supporting remarkable screenwriting and screenwriters who do it through its annual survey and online marketplace. To date, more than 400 scripts from the Black List's annual survey have been produced as feature films, resulting in more than $30B in global box office and 300 Academy Award nominations and 50 wins, including four Best Pictures and nearly half of the screenwriting Oscars awarded since 2007. Leonard has worked in feature film development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack & Anthony Minghella, and Leonardo DiCaprio. He's been a juror at the Sundance, Toronto, and Mumbai film festivals and one of Hollywood Reporter’s '35 Under 35', Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future”, and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business." In 2019, the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAe) presented him with the Evelyn Burkey award for elevating the honor and dignity of screenwriters. Leonard is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and served as an advisor for the 2022 Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Exhibition "In America." He is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the Executives branch of the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). His TED talk - How I Accidentally Changed the Way Movies Get Made - has been viewed more than 1.75 million times.

CO-SPONSORS:

Hollywood, Health & Society is a program of the USC Norman Lear Center which provides entertainment industry professionals with free expert information on all aspects of health, safety, and security, through expert consultations and briefings, panel discussions, tip sheets and more. Partnered with the Writers Guild of America and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and others, the program recognizes the profound impact that entertainment has on knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Visit their website atwww.hollywoodhealthandsociety.org.

The Harvard Club of Southern California.

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