Jelani Cobb

Notable work and positions

Columbia Journalism School - Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism (2022-present)
The New Yorker - Staff Writer (2015-present)
University of Connecticut - Associate Professor of History; Director, Institute for African American Studies (2012-2016)

Biography

William Jelani Cobb is a journalist, historian and dean of Columbia Journalism School, a position he has held since August 2022. Born in Queens, New York, on August 21, 1969, he earned a B.A. in English from Howard University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University, completing his doctorate in 2003. He taught at Spelman College and Rutgers before serving as associate professor of history and director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut from 2012 to 2016. He joined Columbia University's faculty as the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism in 2016 and became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 2015, having contributed to the magazine since 2012, writing on electoral politics, policing, filmmaking and stand-up comedy. He has served as a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019. His books include The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic and Three Or More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here: 2012-2025, and he is editor or co-editor of The Matter of Black Lives, a collection of The New Yorker's writings on race, and The Essential Kerner Commission Report. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film Whose Vote Counts? and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He serves on the board of directors of the American Journalism Project and the board of trustees of the New York Public Library, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023.

Career highlights

• Peabody Award 2020 · Honored for the PBS Frontline film Whose Vote Counts?
• Pulitzer Prize finalist, Commentary 2018.
• Dean, Columbia Journalism School 2022-present.