SoVA Anderson Lecturer

John Jennings

Headshot of SoVA Anderson Lecturer 26-27 John Jennings

Anderson Lecture – March 2, 2027

John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and winner of the Hugo Award for his co-adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian novel The Parable of the Sower. As professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams Comic Arts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color.

Jennings is co-editor of the 2016 Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (Rutgers) and co-founder/organizer of The Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. In 2023, Jennings co-created the Black superhero Ghost Light for Marvel Entertainment. Jennings’ latest publications are The Adventures of Lion Man with Rosarium Publishing and the Parable of the Talents (Abrams Comic Arts) graphic novel adaptation with long-time collaborator Damian Duffy, which won the 2026 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement – Graphic Novel.

Stylized portrait divided into three vertical sections, rendered in shades of pink, red, and violet with patterned textures across the face and neck, set against a cosmic background of stars, abstract shapes, and branching white lines.
Abstract illustration of a figure with a star-filled silhouette inside the head, surrounded by swirling orange forms, bright floral elements, and layered red, gold, and black patterns.
Stylized portrait composed of two contrasting halves in blue and gold tones, surrounded by twisting tree branches, butterflies, swirling forms, and vibrant abstract patterns.