Syracuse Sun

Kendall Phillips, professor of communication and rhetorical studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, has been named director of the Lender Center for Social Justice.

The center fosters proactive, innovative, and interdisciplinary approaches to issues related to social justice, equity, and inclusion. It was established with a gift from Helaine and Marvin Lender as a research, teaching, and action center and as a national hub for leadership and conversation on social justice issues. Phillips, who co-founded the center in 2017, will serve as director for three years.

“I have been honored to be part of the Lender Center since its founding and am excited to return to help the center move into its next phase,” Phillips says. “Over the past six years, the Lender Center has had a tremendous impact on students, faculty and our community and I look forward to working with all these groups to help keep social justice as the focus of all our activities.”

“Since its founding, Syracuse University has been steadfast in its commitment to advancing social justice and equity and leveraging its intellectual resources to discover solutions to humanity’s most pressing challenges – locally, nationally and globally. The Lender Center for Social Justice is at the forefront of interdisciplinary scholarship exploring how individuals and communities can thrive,” says Duncan Brown, vice president for research. “As a co-founder, Kendall Phillips has been integral to the Center’s pursuit of research that takes our students and faculty out of the classroom and into our communities. I look forward to seeing the Lender Center’s work grow through his leadership.”

The center has hosted an annual symposium and a conversation series promoting dialogue on social justice issues among researchers, practitioners, activists, and thought leaders. It supports a new faculty fellow each year for a two-year research project on social justice research and sponsors a team of student fellows to work alongside that faculty member. Over the past three years, as part of its racial wealth gap initiative, the center has hosted three symposia; convened community conversations in several U.S. cities; supported three faculty fellow-and-student teams; hired three postdoctoral scholars.

Phillips’ expertise is in American film; public discourse; memory rhetoric; rhetoric of popular culture. He earned a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University; previously taught at University of Central Missouri; honorary fellow School Art Whiti o Rehua College Creative Arts Massey University New Zealand; honorary director Center Rhetorical Studies Shanghai University; fellow Rhetoric Society America.

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