Based on his field research on the reconstruction of New Orleans and black mayoral leadership, Dr. William E. Nelson, Jr. will discuss “Black Mayoral Leadership and Hurricane Katrina” on Tuesday, May 13, at 7:00 p.m. in the Raymond Wilkes Gallery for the Visual Arts at Ohio University Lancaster Campus.

Nelson wrote Black Atlantic Politics: Dilemmas of Political Empowerment in Boston and Liverpool (winner of the best book award presented by the Race and Ethnic Politics Section of the American Political Science Association) and co-authored Electing Black Mayors: Political Action in the Black Community and serves as co-editor of Black and Latino/Latina Politics: Issues in Political Development in the United States.

His articles have been published in the National Political Science Review, Urban Affairs Quarterly, Public Administration Review, the Annals of the Academy of Social and Political Science, Review of Black Political Economy, and other scholarly publications.

In addition to his research on urban, ethnic, and Black politics and electoral mobilization, Nelson is comparatively researching the political socialization of Caribbean immigrants in Toronto and New York.

Currently professor in the Department of Political Science and research professor in the Department of African-American and African Studies at the Ohio State University, Nelson has chaired the National Council for Black Studies, presided over the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, and chaired the Department of Black Studies at the University.

Nelson earned his undergraduate degree at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (now University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff), his graduate degree from Atlanta University, and holds his doctorate from the University of Illinois.

His awards include a Fulbright Research Fellowship, Lifetime Achievement Award by the Committee on the Status of Blacks of the American Political Science Association, an Ohio State University Success Stories Teaching Award, and an Ohio State University Distinguished Affirmative Action Award.

Nelson’s presentation is sponsored by the Ohio University Lancaster Campus Cultural Events Committee and is free and open to the public.