Michael Jeffries '02 is the Knafel Assistant Professor of Social Sciences and Assistant Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. A qualitative sociologist, he studies race, gender, politics, identity, and popular culture. Jeffries is the author of two books, Paint the White House Black: Barack Obama and the Meaning of Race in America (2013) and Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop (2011).

Jeffries graduated from Swarthmore with a B.A. in sociology/anthropology and earned a Ph.D. in African and African American Studies from Harvard University in 2008. He is introduced by Professor of Sociology Sarah Willie-LeBreton. His lecture was sponsored by Black Studies and the Black Cultural Center Fall 2013 Lecture Series and co-sponsored by the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program.