This post was written by Kathleen Collins. 

Please join us as we welcome Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard to the Library Author Series on Thursday, March 26 during Community Hour (1:40 pm – 3:00 pm). She’ll discuss her re-issued book, Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. This event will take place in the Library Classroom, which can be found on the Library’s upper level. This in-person event is free to attend, but please reserve your seat.

Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard is Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay. She’s also the Director of the McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. Her influential book, Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, was published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 2014. The tenth-anniversary edition includes a new preface by Dr. Nembhard and addresses developments in cooperative economics through the second decade of the twenty-first century, specifically in response to White supremacy, racial economic inequity, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including, most recently, the 2023 Association for Social Economics’ Thomas F. Divine Award for lifetime contributions to social economics and the 2024 Malcolm/King Social Justice Award, by the John Jay Malcolm X/Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Leadership Awards Committee and Program.

She teaches courses such as Institutional Racism, Community-based Approaches to Justice, Introduction to Africana Studies; African American Journeys; African American Studies Research Methods; and Community Economic Development. She is the proud mother of Susan and Stephen, and the grandmother of Stephon, Hugo, Ismaél and Gisèle. To learn more about Dr. Nembhard’s work and abundant affiliations and honors, visit her faculty profile page.