Experts
Pamela Newkirk
Pamela Newkirk, PhD, is an award-winning journalist, book author, and scholar. A Professor of Journalism at New York University, Newkirk is author of the acclaimed book Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, which was honored as one of the Best Books of 2015 by NPR and was awarded the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Literature. Newkirk shared a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting at Newsday. Her other books include of Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media; Letters from Black America; and A Love No Less: More Than Two Centuries of African American Love Letters. She earned her master’s in journalism and her PhD in comparative and international education from Columbia University. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, and many other publications.
Olufemi Oluniyi
Olufemi Oluniyi, PhD, is Executive Director of the Centre for Values and Social Change in Lagos, Nigeria. Author of the book Reconciliation in Northern Nigeria: The Space for Public Apology, he has been involved in peace, reconciliation, and social justice efforts in Africa for many years, and he has a particular interest in how European colonial policies toward Africa were shaped by Social Darwinism. He has a Master’s in Theology from the University of Edinburgh and was a Queen’s Cross scholar for his PhD at the University of Aberdeen, which focused on public theology and advocacy journalism. Dr. Oluniyi previously taught at the Nigeria State College of Education, served as Dean for Academic Affairs for West Africa Theological Seminary, and served as Editorial Board Chair for the National Mirror Newspapers in Nigeria. He was also a Visiting Research Professor at the Catholic University of America.
Richard Weikart
Richard Weikart, PhD, is a Professor of History at California State University, Stanislaus. He is author of multiple books examining the historical impact of Social Darwinism and other ideologies, including From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany, Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress, and The Death of Humanity. Weikart holds a PhD in modern European history from the University of Iowa. British historian Sir Richard Evans of Cambridge University called Weikart’s book From Darwin to Hitler an “outstanding book [that] shows in sober and convincing detail how… thinkers in Germany had developed an amoral attitude to human society by the time of the First World War, in which the supposed good of the race was applied as the sole criterion of public policy and ‘racial hygiene’.”
John G. West
John G. West, PhD, is Vice President and Senior Fellow of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute. Formerly the Chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at Seattle Pacific University, West is an author and documentary filmmaker who has written or edited 12 books, including Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science, The Magician’s Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, and Walt Disney and Live Action: The Disney Studio’s Live-Action Features of the 1950s and 60s. His documentary films include Fire-Maker, Revolutionary, The War on Humans, and the award-winning Biology of the Second Reich. He holds a PhD in Government from Claremont Graduate University. His articles have appeared in USA Today, The Washington Post, FoxNews.com, and other outlets.
Jay Richards
Jay W. Richards, PhD, is the Executive Editor of The Stream. He is an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Business and Economics at The Catholic University of America and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute. He is author of many books including the New York Times bestsellers Infiltrated (2013), and Indivisible (2012), co-authored with James Robison. He is also the author of Money, Greed, and God, winner of a 2010 Templeton Enterprise Award; and co-author of The Privileged Planet with astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez. His most recent book, co-authored with Jonathan Witt, is The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom that J.R.R. Tolkien Got and the West Forgot. He has a PhD with honors in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.