Caleb Gayle

Award-winning journalist, writer, and historian Caleb Gayle is a leading voice in conversations about the impact of history on race and identity today. After studying as a Truman Scholar at University of Oklahoma, and a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at Oxford, Gayle went on to complete both his MBA and master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Business School and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow for New Americans. Previously, he worked for a social enterprise empowering women entrepreneurs from marginalized areas in Mexico, served as a program officer at the George Kaiser Family Foundation, and was a consultant with Boston Consulting Group. A former U.S. News Fellow at The Guardian, Gayle is a professor at Northeastern University, a former Lecturer at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at the City College of New York, a Fellow at the Harvard University Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and a Visiting Scholar at the Arthur Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. He is also a Visiting Professor for Nonfiction at Columbia University's School of Arts. A sought-after keynote speaker, Gayle is renowned for his insights drawn from his personal history, the immigrant experience, and the historical context he offers to explore the modern cultural and political landscape with depth and sincerity.

Gayle’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Harvard Review, Pacific Standard, New Republic, and many more. His work has been recognized by the Best American Essays anthology, and he received the prestigious Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award, as well as the PEN American Writing for Justice Fellowship, the Center for Fiction Emerging Writers Fellowship, the New America Fellowship, the Demos Emerging Voices Fellowship, among others. Gayle’s debut book, "We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power," is an Amazon Editor's Pick for "Best History," a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, the Massachusetts Book Award, the Hurston Wright Foundation Legacy Award for Historical Nonfiction, and is a landmark work of un(der)told history sure to reshape our understanding of identity, race, and belonging.