Keynotes - ACRL 2025

Ruha Benjamin is Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, Founding Director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and author of the award-winning book Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code among many other publications. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology with a focus on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, knowledge and power. Ruha earned a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College, MA and PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and Harvard’s Science, Technology & Society Program. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation 2020 Freedom Scholar Award, and the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. For more information please visit www.ruhabenjamin.com

Saeed Jones is a critically acclaimed author and literary activist known for his poignant exploration of identity. Born in Memphis and raised in Texas, his debut poetry collection Prelude to Bruise was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. His memoir How We Fight for Our Lives (2019) garnered widespread praise, winning the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and the Lambda Literary Award. In 2022, Jones released his latest poetry collection, Alive at the End of the World, which earned the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He also co-hosts the podcast Vibe Check, which has been named one of the best podcasts of the year by major outlets like The New York Times. For more information please visit: www.readsaeedjones.com