New York Times’ Bestselling Author Jeff Hobbs to Conclude 2025-26 Wittenberg Series

Jeff Hobbs, New York Times bestselling author, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Fred R. Leventhal Family Lecture, the final event of the 2025-2026 Wittenberg Series, now in its 41st season. Free and open to the public, the event will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in Weaver Chapel, during which time Hobbs will discuss "Race, Class, and Identity in American Universities: How Students Experience School - And One Another."

Hobbs' interest in this topic stems from personal experience when the life of his friend and college roommate, Robert Peace, was cut short by violence. Hobbs recounts the experience in his book, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (2014), which the Los Angeles Times hails as "an honest, insightful, and empathetic account." The book, in addition to being a New York Times bestseller, an LA Times Book Award winner, and a finalist for the Carnegie Medal and PEN Award in biography, was adapted into the 2024 film ROB PEACE.

Selected as a 2015 nonfiction finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace explores issues of class and race. Bloomberg Businessweek praised the book as "captivating… a smart meditation on the false promise of social mobility."

Since 2014, Hobbs has visited more than a hundred schools - from high schools and juvenile halls to colleges and universities - to facilitate conversations about access, entitlement, racism, classism, justice, and identity in modern-day America.

A Guggenheim Fellow, Hobbs graduated from Yale University in 2002 with a B.A. in English language and literature and currently teaches nonfiction writing at his alma mater. While a student at Yale, he was awarded the Willets and Meeker prizes for his writing. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Hobbs has written five books to date with his latest work, Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and the Story of Homelessness in America, being published in 2025. The book won the Lukas Book Prize earlier this month and has been named a best book of the year by Amazon and The New Yorker. Seeking Shelter follows the story of a single mother of six in Los Angeles facing homelessness and poverty. Hobbs is also the author of The Tourists (2007), Show Them You're Good (2020), and Children of the State (2023).

His books will be available for purchase, and Hobbs will host a book signing following his Wittenberg Series' address. Additionally, he plans to attend a Fireside Chat hosted by Senior Professor of Practice Erin Hill in the University's Department of Education and join Wittenberg students, faculty, and staff for dinner prior to his address.

This Wittenberg Series event is made possible by a gift to Wittenberg University from the Fred R. Leventhal family.

The Wittenberg Series was created in 1982 during President Emeritus' William A. Kinnison's tenure. Since its inception, Nobel Laureates, scientists, significant literary figures, most of America's foremost modern dance companies, as well as hundreds of prominent psychologists, educators, economists, writers, theologians, urban planners, and historians have visited campus to participate.

Doors open 30 minutes prior to the beginning of each lecture or performance.
For more information on the Wittenberg Series, click here. To make special arrangements or become a friend of the Wittenberg Series, contact the Wittenberg Series planning committee at [email protected].