This is Dr. Mark Christian‘s second visit to the podcast. Last year he was here to talk about his books on Booker T. Washington and Liverpool England’s overlooked Black history. In this episode he is in conversation with his Lehman College colleague Dr. Gillian Bayne to talk about his book Frederick Douglass: A Life in American History, published by Bloomsbury in 2025. They discuss the personal reasons that got Mark interested in the subject, the sources he consulted, and what’s missing from other biographies of Douglass. They also address the hardships endured and courage displayed throughout Douglass’s life, his abolitionist activities, his belief in gender equality, his influential writings and speeches and the importance of reading to freedom. Dr. Christian closes by reading a poem he wrote about Douglass as a way to sum up his thoughts, pay respect, and to acknowledge the integration of poetry and political discourse that was not uncommon in Frederick Douglass’s day. Overall, Dr. Christian strongly and rightfully argues that Douglass should be understood as a major figure in American and British history as a whole, not only within the confines of Black history.
Dr. Mark Christian is Professor in Africana Studies & Sociology at Lehman College. He arrived at CUNY in the fall of 2011 as a full and tenured professor; having spent eleven years at Miami University of Ohio. He was the Chairperson in the Department of Africana Studies at Lehman (2011-2019). He has been teaching in higher education for over three decades in the UK and US. A prolific writer, he has to date published eight books and edited three special issue journals in his disciplines. He has published copious journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews. He was educated in the UK (BA Honors & PhD) and the US (MA in Africana Studies); he was a senior Fulbright Scholar at Kent State University’s Department of Pan African Studies (1997-1998). He is currently researching for a critical biography on Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Gillian Bayne is a professor of Science Education in the Department of Middle and High School Education at Lehman College and holds a dual appointment in the Urban Education Department at the CUNY Graduate Center. She brings to her work over thirty-five years of science education experience in both New York City public schools and in higher education. Her advocacy for equality and equity within communities that have been marginalized as a result of societal, educational and political injustices has been foundational to her work. Dr. Bayne is the lead educator for the Training, Education and Public Engagement in the GLOBE program, a science educator and research collaborator with Columbia University’s Center for Smart Streetscapes program, and has been a PI and CoPI on NASA and NSF science education focused grants. She is involved in science educational outreach at Genspace, a Brooklyn based community lab, and the National Society of Black Physicists x Harlem Gallery of Science Mentoring Program. Dr. Bayne works with and supports beginning, seasoned and pre-service science teachers, as well as science and urban education doctoral students and graduates. Her work has been published in highly respected scholarly venues.
Special thanks to our Lehman College Multimedia Center colleagues Brendan McGibney, Luisa Sotelo Crisantos, and Magda Soto, and Lehman’s Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing, Richard Relkin.
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