Neal Lester

The author or co-author/ editor of seven books--among them  Ntozake Shange: A Critical Studyof the Plays  (1995) and  Understanding Zora Neale Hurston's  Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents  (1999)-- Dr. Lester has published, lectured, and taught extensively in the area of African American Studies. He has published on personal ads as African American biography and autobiography; black masculinities; African American homoeroticism; neo-slave narratives; parental (il)literacy in children's literature; the absence of the Nword in contemporary African American children's texts; African American female sexuality; interracial intimacies in American popular music; heteronormativity in children's texts, African American womanist theory; Disney's first African American princess in  The Princess and the Frog; Disney’s Tangled feminist messages; Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo as an anti-trickster; and the gender and race politics of African Americans and hair. His course, "The Nword: An Anatomy Lesson" the only such course taught in the USA, has garnered local, national, and international attention. Since its publication in 2014, Dr. Lester's pedagogical essay on teaching this course--"The Nword: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned" in Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education--has been downloaded 10,165 times nationally and globally by educators, scholars, legal teams, students, school administrators, Human Resource departments, and community members.  His third book,  OnceUpon a Time in a Different World: Issues and Ideas in African American Children’sLiterature (2007), is a collection of Dr. Lester's essays on children's literature with scholars, critics, and lay persons responding each to a different essay and creating a threaded conversation about identity, gender, sexuality and race. He has also completed a co-edited collection of essays on the intersection of race, gender and sexuality in personal ads, Racialized Politics of Desire in Personal Ads (2008). His co-edited volume Sapphire's LiteraryBreakthrough: Feminist Pedagogies, Erotic Literacies, Environmental Justice Perspectives (2012), is the first critical study if this important poet and author. Dr. Lester is also co-author of the exhibition catalog HairStories (2003) for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2013, Dr. Lester served as the lead editor of the international journal of children’s literature, TheLion and The Unicorn, a special issue on children and hair. His edited volume on global social justice pedagogy is multidisciplinary, multi-professional, and intended for scholars and practitioners, for humanists and non-humanists. This volume will be published in 2023 by the Modern Language Association, the leading professional humanities organization in North America. As well, he serves as the Guest Editor for a special issue on “African American Children’s Literature” for the international journal Humanities. His most recent scholarship is an essay on Beyonce's "Break My Soul," from her new album Renaissance (2022), as an anthem of radical self-care and of community-building and community-sustaining.

A popular public speaker, frequent radio guest, regular  op ed contributor, newspaper columnist and blogger, and discussion facilitator, Dr. Lester has an extensive record of  280 lectures and keynote addresses, 337 local and national media interviews, 35 guest speaker events, 65 panel moderations and participations, 62 conference presentations, 67 workshop facilitations, 25 student interviews for class projects, and 60 editorials. As well, he has received numerous teaching awards and recognitions, including Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award (1993), Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award (1996), and David Bottoms Distinguished Department Alumni Award and the College Alumni Achievement Award from The University of West Georgia.  Dr. Lester was named "Distinguished Public Scholar" by the  Arizona Humanities Council in 2001 for his work both inside and outside the classroom. Dr. Lester was a recipient of the ASU "Last Lecture" Award (2002), the  Arizona State University Parents Association Professor of the Year (2003), the CLAS Dean's Distinguished Professorship (2004), and a Foundation Professorship (2007).

Dr. Lester’s extensive public service and administrative experience includes six years on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Humanities Council--two years as Board chair--as Chair of the ASU Department of English, and as Dean of Humanities in the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In addition to serving on editorial and advisory boards, has served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Departments of English (ADE), an affiliate of the Modern Language Association of America. Dr. Lester served as Associate Vice President for Humanities and Arts in the  Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development where his role was to promote integrated humanities research across disciplines throughout the university. He also created and has directed at Arizona State University the multiple award-winning university-wide  Project Humanities initiative since 2010, bringing scholars and communities together to  talk, listen and  connect.  In 2014, Project Humanities received the inaugural Key of Excellence Award from the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society for successfully promoting liberal arts and sciences across communities and disciplines. As of 2023, Project Humanities has logged some 350 local and national media stories. Because of his extensive research expertise on the race and gender politics of hair, Dr. Lester was invited to offer social commentary on the Arizona Governor's Executive Order signing of the AZ CROWN Act (March 2023).

Introducing Dr. Neal A. Lester

Video of Introducing Dr. Neal A. Lester

Dr. Lester received the 2014 Roy Wilkins Community Service Award, the highest honor from the East Valley NAACP chapter, for his innovative Project Humanities initiative and for this community awareness campaign about the Nword. Project Humanities received the Juliana Yoder Friend of Humanities Award from the Arizona Humanities in November 2104 for promoting humanities efforts across the state of Arizona. In January 2015, Dr. Lester received the Francis March Andrew Distinguished Service Award from the Modern Language Association/Association of Departments of English for his extensive professional service to English Studies, and in February 2015, received the Invisible Heroes’ “UMOJA” award from the United Gay Informed Men of African-Descent. In April 2016, Dr. Lester received the Faculty Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award from the ASU Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Most recently, Dr. Lester was named to Echo Magazine’s Class of 2016 Hall of Fame for his support of and programming around LGBTQ communities (http://echomag.com/neal-lester/). As a recipient of the City of Tempe 2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Diversity Award, Dr. Lester’s portrait is permanently displayed in the Tempe History Museum. The April 2016 issue of Ion Magazine features Dr. Lester among those whose “Community Outreach” positively impacts Arizona’s LGBTQ communities. In November 2018, Dr. Lester received a 2018 Diversity Leadership Alliance Award for his ongoing community engagement work, and in January 2019, Dr. Lester received two Martin Luther King, Jr. Diversity Awards from two different Arizona city municipalities—City of Phoenix and the Town of Paradise Valley. In February 2020, Dr. Lester received two community service awards: “Unity in the Community” Service Award from the Holy Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church (Mesa, AZ), and the “Living History Award” for his contributions to the Art of Academia from Jack & Jill of America, Inc. Phoenix Chapter in collaboration with the Phoenix Chapter of The Links, Inc., and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity's Gamma Mu Boule of Phoenix. His Project Humanities initiative received the 2021 City of Tempe Martin Luther King, Jr. Excellence in Diversity Award for Education as well as the 2021 Catalyst Award for diversity and social transformation from the Arizona State University Committee for Campus Inclusion, and the 2021 “Citizen of the Year” Award from the Phi Iota Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated. In January 2022, he received the inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Servant-Leadership Faculty Award from Arizona State University, and in March 2023, he received the Gary Krahenbruhl Difference Maker Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. In March 2023, Project Humanities received a Bronze "Anthem Award" for its extensive and impactful community engagement.

At a Glance

• Founding Director of award-winning university initiative Project Humanities, Foundation Professor of English, Dean’s Distinguished Professor of English, Parents Association Professor of the Year, and Arizona Humanities Distinguished Public Scholar.
• Project Humanities has garnered 350 local and national media stories.
• Research interests include African American literature and culture: children’s literature, folklore and popular culture, Black/white interracial intimacies in American culture, African American women writers, black masculinities, the Nword, cultural appropriation, privilege and bias, and the gender and race politics of hair.
• Has published on such subjects as Disney representations of female characters, and Black masculinities; on such authors as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Sapphire, and Ntozake Shange.
• Has authored, edited, or co-edited 8 scholarly books.
• Has authored or co-authored 33 scholarly essays and 11 book chapters.
• Has as a "Distinguished Public Scholar" logged 279 lectures and keynote addresses, 337 local and national media interviews, 35 guest speaker events, 65 panel moderations and participations, 62 conference presentations, 67 workshop facilitations, 25 student interviews for class projects, and 60 editorials.
• Since its publication in 2014, Dr. Lester's pedagogical essay on teaching this course--"The Nword: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned" in Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education--has been downloaded 11,083 times nationally and globally by educators, scholars, legal teams, students, school administrators, Human Resource departments, and community members. 
• Has written scholarly essays for a range of academic journals, including Journal of American Culture, Communication and Critical/ Cultural Studies, Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education, Social Identities, Children’s Folklore Review, Humanities, Arizona Reading Journal, African American Review, Valley Voices, The Lion and The Unicorn, Humanities, and The Western Journal of Black Studies.
• Has contributed over 70 pieces of public scholarship via blogs and op ed pieces: Teaching Tolerance [now Learning for Justice] (Southern Poverty Leadership Center), Detroit Smart Pages, Ahwatukee Foothills News, USA Today, Arizona Republic, and Essence.
• Has achieved local, national, and international acclaim for lectures and keynotes on race and privilege, namely: “Straight Talk about the Nword,” “Are We Losing Our Humanity?”  “Nappy Edges and Goldy Locks:  Race & Gender Politics of Hair,”  "Rethinking 'Diversity': Everyday Lessons in Privilege and Bias," and "Beyond Books: Social Justice through 'Things' & 'Stuff'"
• Has been interviewed by over 400 radio and television media outlets locally, nationally, and internationally.
• Nominated for and/or received some 50 honors and awards for public scholarship and professional service.
• Has lectured internationally: China, Russia, Korea, Ghana, Italy, and Pakistan.