Roderick Ferguson

Roderick Ferguson is Professor of American Studies and Chair of the Program in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. He will deliver the RIDGS Keynote Lecture titled "Civilizing Missions and the Hampton Project: Carrie Mae Weems" in September 2025 at the University of Minnesota.

• Current Affiliation: Yale University
• Administrative Role: Chair, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Ferguson's research examines intersections of race, gender, and colonialism through critical theory and cultural analysis. His work interrogates historical projects of assimilation and their contemporary implications for marginalized communities.

This lecture analyzes artist Carrie Mae Weems's "The Hampton Project," which exposes how Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) functioned as a site of dual oppression: implementing assimilationist programs for African Americans while advancing settler colonial agendas against Native peoples. The talk explores how these parallel systems of socialization reveal overlapping mechanisms of racial and cultural domination.