Brauer Lecture Series

Brauer Lecture Series 2024: A Talk with Jason Riley

The Brauer Lecture: 6 P.M. Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Join us at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in the Coulter Science Center Lecture Hall for the Third Annual Brauer Lecture featuring Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley. 

Jason Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he has written about politics, economics, education, immigration and social inequality for more than 25 years. He’s also a frequent public speaker and provides commentary for television and radio news outlets.

After joining the Journal in 1994, he was named a senior editorial page writer in 2000 and a member of the Editorial Board in 2005. He joined the Manhattan Institute, a public policy think tank focused on urban issues, in 2015.

Riley is the author of five books. In 2008 he published Let Them In, which argues for more legal immigration. His second book, Please Stop Helping Us, is about government efforts to help the black underclass and was published in 2014. In 2017 he published False Black Power?, an assessment of why black political success has not translated into more economic advancement. In 2021 he published Maverick, a biography of the iconic economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell, and narrated the documentary film, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World. Riley’s most recent book, published in 2022, is The Black Boom, an analysis of black economic progress prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Riley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has also worked for USA Today and the Buffalo News. He lives in suburban New York City

About the Brauer Lecture Series

Sponsored in conjunction with the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, The Brauer Lecture Series seeks to highlight the leadership characteristics of its speakers. Featured lecturers are encouraged to discuss how their values guide their daily lives while also highlighting the importance free-market economics.

This lecture series is designed to bring to campus world-renowned speakers who will address the contributions of free enterprise to economic growth, public policy, and world affairs.

The Brauer Lecture Series is made possible by a generous gift from Stephen F., ’67 ΦΔΘ, and Camilla T. Brauer of St. Louis, MO