
Nikhil Pal Singh
Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History, Faculty Director NYU Prison Education Program, SCA Department Chair
Education
- 1995 Ph.D. in American Studies, Yale University
- 1987 A.B. in Social Studies, Harvard University
Nikhil Pal Singh is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at NYU, who works at the intersection of contemporary US history and political theory. His first book, Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy, published by Harvard University Press in 2004 was recognized as the best book in US civil rights history by the Organization of American Historians. Appointed Walker Family Professor of History at University of Washington in 2006, Professor Singh worked for many years with legendary black freedom movement activist Jack O’Dell, gathering, editing and introducing O’Dell’s collected essays and movement writings in Climin’ Jacob’s Ladder, published by University of California Press in 2010. Along with several SCA faculty members and former PhD students, including Thuy Linh Tu, Andrew Ross, Julie Livingston and Kaitlin Noss, Professor Singh helped to create and develop the NYU Prison Education Program (PEP), serving as its founding faculty director from 2014 to 2023. During this time period, he participated in raising several million dollars in foundation and government grants and private donations to sustain and grow PEP at NYU. Race and America’s Long War, Professor Singh’s second book, an examination of the relationship between race, war and policing in US domestic life and overseas conflict, was published by University of California Press in 2017. Professor Singh has been interviewed and published widely across left and progressive media, including at Jacobin’s The Dig podcast, in the Nation, the Intercept, Dissent, the Verso blog, the New Republic, Salvage, the New Statesmen, and the Boston Review. His 2018 Soho Forum Debate with John McWhorter in defense of anti-racism garnered more than 250,000 views on Youtube. Professor Singh currently serves as a series editor for the esteemed American Crossroads book series at the University of California Press and is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, based in Washington D.C.. His third book, Reconstructing Democracy, a collection of essays on US black intellectual history is forthcoming from the University of California Press.
Books
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Reconstructing Democracy: Black Intellectuals in the American CenturyUniversity of California Press, forthcoming 2023
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Race and America's Long WarUniversity of California Press, 2017
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University of California Press, 2010
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Harvard University Press, 2005
Contact Information
Nikhil Pal Singh
Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History, Faculty Director NYU Prison Education Program, SCA Department Chair nikhil.singh@nyu.edu 20 Cooper Square, 4th FloorRoom 436
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 998-8539
Office Hours: By Appointment Only