Heinz Ethics Event: "The Ethics of Remembering" with Kevin Waite
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 6:30 p.m. Upper School Library
Kevin Waite ’05, is the Anne Stark Watson and Chester Watson Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously he taught for nine years at Durham University in the U.K., where he is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is one of the leading historians of the American West, the author of the prizewinning book, West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire, and his new book, The Boundless Biddy Mason: An Odyssey from Slavery to Freedom Across the American West, has just been published by University of California Press.
Much of Waite’s work extends beyond the academy. Research for his new book assisted in the successful campaign to rename Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles in honor of Biddy Mason. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, National Geographic, Time, the New Republic, Slate, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He consults for the National Park Service to identify and preserve historic sites of interest in the American West and has written and produced docuseries for BBC Select and National Geographic. He is currently writing and producing a documentary on the Underground Railroad of Southern California.