Free speech activist Zachary Wood to deliver Community Engagement lecture on Tuesday

The Community Engagement Lecture is the second event in Elon's 2019-20 Speaker Series.

Zachary Wood, an activist for free speech and dissenting opinions, will deliver the 2019 Community Engagement Lecture.

​Zachary R. Wood will deliver a Community Engagement Lecture at Elon on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 6 p.m. in McCrary Theatre. The event is the second in the 2019-20 Elon University Speaker Series, which kicked off Friday with Nikki Haley’s address during Fall Convocation.

Wood rose to national prominence while a student at Williams College, where he was president of the student group Uncomfortable Learning, which invited speakers with controversial perspectives to come speak freely on the college’s campus. His work with the group put him at the center of multiple campus controversies that generated national news coverage. In particular, his invitation of former National Review columnist John Derbyshire to speak at Williams brought attention to the issue of campus censorship.

An activist for free speech and dissenting opinions, Wood has taken his message beyond his college campus and shared his own personal story and experiences in his memoir, “Uncensored: My Life and Uncomfortable Conversations at the Intersection of Black and White America.”

A 2018 graduate of Williams College, Wood was a Robert L. Bentley Fellow at The Wall Street Journal and currently works as an assistant opinion editor at The Guardian.

The event is open to the public and does not require a ticket.