The Josephine Gessner Ferguson Lecture is a cherished springtime tradition for students, local alumni, and faculty of the English Department at Tulane University. The lecture series annually brings an outstanding literary scholar to Tulane’s campus to speak about a topic of general interest pertaining to their research.

The Ferguson Lecture series was established in 1990 by Charles A. Ferguson Jr. (Tulane College Class of 1958; Tulane Law Class of 1961) and Barbara Ferguson Ginsberg (Newcomb College Class of 1951) in honor of their mother, Josephine Gessner Ferguson, a Class of 1924 graduate of Newcomb College who maintained a lifelong interest in English literature and especially in nineteenth-century English literature. Barbara Ginsberg sadly passed away in 2020, and is remembered by her husband, Howard Ginsberg; her brother, Charles Ferguson, and his wife, Jane Ferguson (Newcomb College Class of 1959); and by the Ferguson and Ginsberg families.

Because of Josephine Gessner Ferguson’s love of nineteenth-century English literature, many of the Ferguson lectures have addressed topics pertaining to the English Nineteenth Century. But from the beginning and increasingly over time, Ferguson lectures have also discussed subjects beyond English literature and the Nineteenth Century. We are grateful to Charles Ferguson and the Ferguson family for their generosity in making the Ferguson Lecture possible every year. And we are grateful for their sustained commitment to publicizing the importance of literature and literary scholarship.