College of the Canyons will host a conversation with race relations scholar and author Dr. Shelby Steele at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12.

Presented by the college’s Intercultural Center, “An Interview with Shelby Steele” will be an hour-long event that will discuss the impact of contemporary social programs, such as affirmative action, on race relations in American society.

Steele specializes in the study of race relations, multiculturalism, and affirmative action.

In 1990, he received the National Book Critic’s Circle Award in general nonfiction for his book, “The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America.” In 1991, his work on the documentary “Seven Days in Bensonhurst” garnered an Emmy Award, a Writer’s Guild Award and a San Francisco Film Festival Award.

A Robert J. and Marion E. Oster senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Steele was appointed a Hoover Fellow in 1994. For his contributions to the study of race in America, he received the National Medal of the Humanities and the Bradley Prize in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

Steele earned his Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah, a master’s degree in sociology from Southern Illinois University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Coe College.

He is a member of the National Association of Scholars, the national board of the American Academy for Liberal Education, the University Accreditation Association, and the national board at the Center for the New American Community at the Manhattan Institute.

Other books by Steele include “Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country,” “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win,” “White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era,” and “A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America.”

Steele has also written extensively for major publications including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine.

“An Interview with Shelby Steele” will be held at the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center (lobby), which is located on the college’s Valencia campus.

This event is free and open to the public. To RSVP, please click here.