William Jelani Cobb (born August 21, 1969)[1] is an American writer,[2] author and educator. The Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, Cobb was previously an associate professor of history and director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, from 2012 to 2016.[3] Since 2015, he has been a staff writer at The New Yorker.