2025 Eric Williams Memorial Lecture - Abby Phillip

2025 Eric Williams Memorial Lecture

This event is FREE and open to the public. A reception and book sales will precede the keynote address. Please join us for refreshments and fellowship.

Public Reception and Book Sale: 5:15 PM (US Central Time)

Keynote Address: 6:15 PM (US Central Time)

For those who cannot attend in person, the Keynote Address will also be LIVE-STREAMED online. No advance registration or login is required to view the broadcast online.

LIVE-STREAM LINK: https://virtualmeeting.la.utexas.edu/meet/eric-williams-memorial-lecture-march-28-2025

Parking Details

As parking can be difficult to find on the UT Austin campus, we recommend using a rideshare service, public transportation (see capmetro.org to learn more), or walking to the AT&T Conference Center.

If you do choose to drive, the nearest public parking options include:

AT&T Conference Center Garage at 1900 University Ave

Rowling Hall Garage at 300 West MLK Jr. Blvd (entrance is off of 20th Street)

Bullock Museum Garage near 18th Street, on the south side of the museum

Brazos Garage at 210 East MLK Blvd

About Abby Phillip

Abby Phillip anchors NewsNight with Abby Phillip airing weeknights at 10pm ET on CNN. Phillip takes a smart and sharp approach to the day’s biggest stories, driven by the facts and pursuit of the truth. With her award-winning background in dogged Washington reporting, Phillip brings unique context to the complexity of current affairs. Phillip keeps the powerful honest in hard-hitting interviews and hosts interesting conversations with a variety of perspectives.

She was previously CNN’s senior political correspondent and anchor of Inside Politics Sunday. She joined the network in 2017 to cover the Trump Administration and served as a White House Correspondent through 2019. In January 2020, she moderated CNN’s Democratic Presidential Debate in Iowa. She also anchored special coverage of Election Night in America surrounding the 2020 election. In January 2021, she anchored the CNN Special Report: Kamala Harris: Making History about the Vice President’s barrier-breaking career and the childhood experiences that helped shape her. Phillip has been an essential player in CNN’s Special Coverage of a range of political events, including election nights, State of the Union Addresses and the January 6th Committee hearings.

About the Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Series

In April 2021, moved from Florida International University to its new home at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Founded in 1999, the series honors the late Dr. Eric Williams (1911-1981), scholar, statesman, and Head of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago from 1956 until his death in 1981. Williams authored (1944), the landmark study that has been translated into 9 languages: Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Spanish, among them (with Dutch and German translations forthcoming). It continues to generate new debates and provocative thinking about slavery and abolition.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, 1900 University Avenue, Austin, United States