Bestselling author and lauded TED speaker Kenji Yoshino speaks about allyship, the power of authenticity, and the progress of civil rights. With practical guidance on how to talk about identity, Yoshino makes allyship accessible, explores the power unleashed when people can stop “covering” who they are, and finally, addresses how companies can mitigate the backlash against DEI. The Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law and the director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Yoshino is the author of Say The Right Thing, a practical approach to talking about identity; Speak Now, the story of marriage equality in the courts; A Thousand Times More Fair, what Shakespeare’s plays teach us about justice; and Covering, part memoir and new way to think about civil rights.
Kenji Yoshino
Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. A graduate of Harvard (AB summa cum laude), Oxford (MSc as a Rhodes Scholar) and Yale (JD), he specializes in constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, and law and literature. He received tenure at Yale Law School, where he served as Deputy Dean before moving to NYU.
Yoshino has published in major academic journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. He has also written for more popular forums, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Yoshino is the author of three books. His fourth book (co-authored with David Glasgow), Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice, was published by Simon and Schuster in February 2023.
Yoshino has served as the President of the Harvard Board of Overseers. He currently serves on the Oversight Board for Meta, the Board of the Brennan Center for Justice on advisory boards for diversity and inclusion for Morgan Stanley and Charter Communications, and on the board of his children’s school. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the Peck medal in jurisprudence, and the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
He lives in Manhattan with his husband, two children, and a Great Dane.
