Melissa V. Harris-Perry

Melissa V. Harris-Perry is a professor of political science at Tulane University, where she is founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She is the author of Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought, which won the 2005 W. E. B. Du Bois Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and 2005 Best Book Award from the Race and Ethnic Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. She is also a contributor to MSNBC and a frequent guest on the Rachel Maddow Show and The Last Word. She is a columnist for The Nation magazine, as well as a regular commentator for many print and radio sources in the U.S. and abroad. Melissa lives with her family in New Orleans.