AfroTech Conference 2026

Robin Givhan

Author, Penguin Random House

Track Future of Marketing, Creator

Biography

Robin Givhan is a contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times. Previously, as The Washington Post’s senior critic-at-large, she wrote about politics, race, and the arts, covering the fashion industry as a business, as a cultural institution, and as pure pleasure. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism and author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. In addition to the Post, where she also covered Michelle Obama, Givhan has worked at Newsweek, Daily Beast, Vogue, and the Detroit Free Press.

Sessions

  1. Make It Ours: How Outsiders Rewrite the Rules of Luxury

    Thu, Nov 5, 11:40 AM – 12:05 PM CT

    Track Future of Marketing

    Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Robin Givhan on how Virgil Abloh, with no formal training, became the first Black artistic director in Louis Vuitton's 164-year history, and what his rise says about race, taste, and who gets to define a brand.

  2. The Algorithm Changed Who Gets a Microphone

    Thu, Nov 5, 12:15 PM – 12:50 PM CT

    Track Creator

    Gatekeepers versus direct-to-audience: how creators across books, television, fashion, and social are building audiences and owning them.

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