Condoleezza Rice To Deliver Du Bois Speech Today

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will deliver the first of a three-part lecture series titled “American Foreign Policy and the Black Experience” at 8 p.m. today at the Institute of Politics.

The three talks, which will take place over the course of this week, are part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research Lecture Series and will be published by the Harvard University Press.

Rice served as the National Security Advisor under President George W. Bush during his first term and as Secretary of State during his second term in office. During her time as secretary, Rice was known as a champion for the expansion of democratic governments internationally and for her policies supporting human rights in the Middle East.

Rice has been criticized, however, for her support of the war in Iraq and former President Bush’s counter-terrorism policies.

W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Director and Professor of African and African American Studies Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. said that Rice was selected by the executive board of the Du Bois Insitute to present a series of three lectures over the course of the week focusing on foreign policy and African American history.

“Condoleezza is someone I admire tremendously,” Gates said. “I know that Secretary Rice is brilliant and these will be historic lectures.”

The three lectures will focus on U.S. foreign policy in Africa, multi-ethnic diversity in America, and the importance of democracy abroad. Her lecture today is titled “The National Interest, Africa, and the African Diaspora: Does US Foreign Policy Connect the Dots?”

Gates said that Secretary Rice’s lecture series represents “one of the only times someone has written about American foreign policy and African Americans,” Gates said. “I can’t wait to host her at Harvard and hear her speak.”

Gracie A. Hurley ’14, who plans to attend Rice’s lecture today, said that she hopes the event will be both inspirational and educational.

“I wanted to see Condoleezza Rice because I want to learn more about her life and accomplishments,” Hurley said. “I would love to hear some of her stories and see if I would be interested in a similar career.”

Rice worked as a professor of political science at Stanford University before joining the Bush administration. In March 2009 she returned to the school as a political science professor and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace.

The next two lectures in Rice’s series will take place on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Askwith Hall, and on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Longfellow Hall.