2026 Samuel D. Ehrenpreis Memorial Lecture – Ava Chin
The BCC History Department invite you to the
2026 Samuel D. Ehrenpreis Memorial Lecture
Ava Chin
Exclusion & Belonging: Writing an Epic Family Narrative in the Wake of the Chinese Exclusion Act
Monday, March 23, 2026 • 11am-1pm • North Hall & Library Rm 314
Ava Chin is the author of Mott Street, winner of the CALA Best Book Award and a PEN/Open Book Finalist, and Eating Wildly, winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Book Award for excellence in food writing. Mott Street, an ALA Notable Book and one of People magazine’s top books by Asian American authors, was a Best Book of the year by TIME, the SF Chronicle, Library Journal, Kirkus and Elle. Chin is the recipient of grants from the NYPL’s Cullman Center, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, NYFA, Asian American Writers’ Workshop and MacDowell. She is Professor of Creative Nonfiction at CSI, head of the CUNY Grad Center’s American Studies Certificate Program, a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, and member of the Society of American Historians. The Huff Post named her one of “9 Contemporary Authors You Should Be Reading.”
The Ehrenpreis Memorial Lecture is named for Dr. Samuel D. Ehrenpreis, Professor of History and former Chairperson of the History Department who served at BCC from 1961 until his retirement in 1990. BCC’s History Department organizes the Ehrenpreis Lecture annually with generous funding from the Eherenpreis family.
The talk will be followed by a Q&A. Light snacks available.
