2026 Ambedkar Law Lectures
The Global Disappearance of the Poor: Racialization, Segregation, and Poverty
Amaney A. Jamal, Dean, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
The 2026 Ambedkar Law Lectures will take place on October 7 and 8 with a reception to follow. The lectures will be delivered by Amaney A. Jamal, Dean, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. On each day, the lectures will have two commentators.
Lecture I
Wednesday, October 7, 5:30–7 p.m.
Jerome L. Greene Hall, Room 104
Commentators:
Frédéric Mégret, McGill University Faculty of Law
Olatunde Johnson, Columbia Law School
Register for the October 7 Lecture
Lecture II
Thursday, October 8, 5:30–7 p.m.
Jerome L. Greene Hall, Room 106
Commentators:
Michelle Wilde Anderson, Stanford Law School
Aziz Rana, Boston College Law School
Register for the October 8 Lecture
About the Ambedkar Law Lectures
Delivered by prominent scholars of public law and other students of politics, the lectures aim to further our understanding of justice, democracy, equality, development, and governance from historical, comparative, and philosophical perspectives. The Ambedkar Law Lectures are named in honor of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, an influential Indian political thinker and anti-colonial activist who studied at Columbia University and played a central part in framing the Constitution of independent India. The Ambedkar Law Lectures are chaired by Columbia Law School Professors Mala Chatterjee, Jamal Greene, and Madhav Khosla.
Reading Fanon
Reading Fanon, focused on the writings of Frantz Fanon, one of the twentieth century’s most important theorists of colonialism, revolution, and freedom.
Lecturer:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law, NYU School of Law
With commentary by:
Jeremy Kessler, Stanley H. Fuld Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Kaiama L. Glover, Professor of African American Studies, Yale University
Michele Moody-Adams, Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory, Columbia University
Watch the 2024 Ambedkar Law Lectures: Reading Fanon
September 24th and September 25th.
Historical Injustice, Agency, and Resentment
In societies marked by deep and enduring structural inequality—often along lines of caste, race, gender, or other forms of identity—how is the responsibility for such injustice assigned? How is the agency necessary to overcome historical injustice imagined? These lectures will use Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s writings as a starting point to explore the moral psychology of responding to historical injustice.
Lecturer:
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching, Princeton University; Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
With commentary by:
David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English, Yale University
Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Katharina Pistor, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School
Watch the 2022 Ambedkar Law Lectures: Historical Injustice, Agency, and Resentment, held on March 28 and March 31.
