Marcus Rediker is the 2024 Dai Ho Chun Distinguished Chair of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Arts, Languages & Letters. A renowned historian and professor of Atlantic history at the University of Pittsburgh, Rediker is celebrated for his award-winning “histories from below.”
Related UH News story: Rediker selected as spring 2019 Inouye Chair
This year, he will headline two free public events at UH Mānoa aimed at providing historical insight into the upcoming elections: a dramatic performance about an 18th-century revolutionary on November 3, followed by a public conversation on the long history of resistance to tyranny on November 7.
Rediker is the author of 15 books, including The Many-Headed Hydra (with Peter Linebaugh) and The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007), which won the George Washington Book Prize. His latest book, Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea, will be published in May 2025.
Public events
The Return of Benjamin Lay
November 3, 2 p.m., Art Auditorium
A dramatic reading starring Mark Povinelli, the start of the London premiere. The play, written by Marcus Rediker and Naomi Wallace, brings to life one of the most remarkable revolutionaries and abolitionists of the 18th century—a sailor, shepherd and four-foot tall “Little David” who stood against nearly every Goliath of his time. Register here.
Mark Povinelli is an actor and social activist advocating for the rights of people with dwarfism.
Resistance to Tyrants
November 7, 6:30 p.m., Art Auditorium
A public conversation between the award-winning historian Marcus Rediker and UH Professor Emeritus Charles Lawrence on the long history of resistance to tyrannies and the lessons they hold for confronting injustice in our own time, from Waiʻanae to the White House. Register here.
These events are made possible by the late Dr. Dai Ho Chun, a distinguished and visionary educator, who established The Dai Ho Chun Distinguished Chair Endowment in the UH Mānoa Colleges of Arts & Sciences.
The dramatic reading is sponsored by the Center for Biographical Research and the departments of American Studies, English, and Theatre and Dance, all part of UH Mānoa.
The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series is a joint venture of Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, Kamehameha Schools and the UH Mānoa, with assistance from the UH Foundation. Series sponsors include the Learning Coalition, Scholars Strategy Network, the Ulupono Initiative, and the William S. Richardson School of Law.
