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Capitalism, Race, and Class: The Case of McDonald’s
A conversation about how everything you need to know about race and inequality can be learned by examining the history of McDonald’s. DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN explores how fast food uncovers American’s hidden histories of identity, economic
opportunity, and hunger for justice.
Racism in Our Streets and Structures
DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN is a leading voice on the intersection of race and faith. In this conversation, Dr. Chatelain speaks to the conflicted history of American slaveholding, religion, and social justice.
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN’s 2020 book Franchise was a highly regarded examination of the roots of today’s obesity crisis, food deserts, and struggle for food justice. By examining the history of McDonald’s in America, Dr. Chatelain tells the story of race, civil rights, and the question about how to best deliver equal opportunity.
South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration
Based on DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN’s first book, this talk captures the myriad of emotions and experiences of girls and young women during the massive urbanization of African Americans. An ever popular topic for Black History Month, Dr. Chatelain highlights why gender mattered then and now.
Social Media for Social Change: Using Digital Tools Today to Respond to Tomorrow’s Challenges
As creator of the viral #FergusonSyllabus movement in 2014, DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN shares her experience using social media to organize educators and inspire students to have candid conversations about race in America.
Creativity, Art, and the History of (in)equality
In this lecture, DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN explains how the history of American art, maps, and visual culture can be our best tools for understanding race and racism in America.
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Award-winning author Dr. Marcia Chatelain is in demand worldwide for her engaging and informative talks
Since DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN was awarded the Pulitzer Prize last year for her acclaimed book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, she has been in high demand for speaking engagements all over the world. Sought-after talks about her work have taken her around globe, from Stetson University in Florida to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she made “eye-opening connections” during the 2022 African American History Month Lecture, from the Unbound Book Festival where she was a featured author, to the U.S. State Department in Finland. Dr. Chatelain is also frequently sought after for media appearances, as a revered expert in food justice, race and ethnicity, and Urban Policy – she is a frequent guest on Slate’s podcast Waves, and her writing has been featured in numerous publications including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The American Federation of Teachers, in which her piece “I Teach Truth” shares her mission for education for the common good and on common ground.
The James Beard Award winner recently gave the keynote speech for "Mädchen*fantasien" at the University of Zurich, on behalf of the German Society for Empirical Cultural Studies, which deals with the everyday life of girl cultures, their media representation, history, and theory. Her riveting talk explored what children’s history can teach us about historical research and focused on the presence of girls and young women in the archives. A celebrated historian and gifted storyteller, Dr. Chatelain tailors her remarks to the goals of her audience and breaks down nuanced concepts for audiences of all kinds in her engaging and informative talks.
Dr. Marcia Chatelain wins a Pulitzer Prize for her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
DR. MARCIA CHATELAIN is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author for her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. Her book examines the intersection of the post-1968 civil rights struggle and the rise of fast-food industry, as well as how the food industry has helped Black entrepreneurs while simultaneously harming African Americans in other ways. The Pulitzer Prize board called her book “a nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African American communities [and] a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.” After winning the Pulitzer Prize, she went on AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast to talk about what she learned while researching and writing the book.
Chatelain speaks about the topics in her book, and also covers wider topics of Black history, racism, social change, inequality, and more. At Georgetown University, she served on the globally recognized working group on slavery, memory and reconciliation, and has expertise on slavery and higher education. She uses her scholarly and practical experience as an experienced facilitator and strategist to help organizations respond to and solve their current communication challenges, as well as move into the future with a better plan. She has provided support to schools grappling with incidents surrounding racism, assisted university departments in identifying new priorities after campus-wide protests, and led workshops on inclusive pedagogy for multiple high school and college faculties.
Marcia Chatelain is currently a Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Previously, she was a Reach for Excellence Assistant Professor of Honors and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. She is a scholar of African-American life and culture, and her first book South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration (Duke University Press, 2015) reimagined the mass exodus of black Southerners to the urban North from the perspective of girls and teenage women. She won a 2021 Pulitzer Prize for her latest book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (Liveright/W.W. Norton, 2020) which examines the intersection of the post-1968 civil rights struggle and the rise of fast-food industry. Franchise was chosen as a New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Book and the Hagley Prize for Best Book in Business History. In 2016, the Chronicle of Higher Education named Marcia a Top Influencer in Higher Education in recognition of her curation of #FergusonSyllabus, a response to the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. She is a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Chatelain also served on the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation, and is a renowned voice on universities, slavery, and reparations.
Dr. Chatelain helps organizations respond to and solve the challenges that confront them. Problems can emerge when communication is impaired or unfinished business impedes progress. Dr. Chatelain is an experienced facilitator and strategist. She has provided support to schools grappling with negative incidents surrounding racism, assisted university departments in identifying new priorities after campus-wide protests, and led workshops on inclusive pedagogy for multiple high school faculties. From developing parent engagement programs to assessing diversity programs or thinking about the needs of first-generation college students, Dr. Chatelain uses her scholarly and practical experience to help organizations plan for the future.
Marcia has been honored to be named a Harry S. Truman Scholar (2000), Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life Amethyst Award recipient (2009), German Marshall Fund of the U.S. American Fellow (2011), Ford Foundation Diversity Fellow (2012), French American Foundation Young Leader (2015), and National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellow (2017-2018). Her teaching has been recognized with Georgetown University's Dorothy M. Brown Teaching Award (2014), the Edward Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence (2015), and the College Academic Council's Faculty Award (2016).
Marcia is proud native of Chicago, Illinois, and she is an even prouder graduate of the following schools: St. Ignatius College Prep, the University of Missouri-Columbia (B.A. Journalism/Religious Studies), and Brown University (A.M. and Ph.D., American Civilization).
My Speaker List
