Threats to freedom of speech are all around us, often changing as new threats arise and others diminish. Former director of the American Civil Liberties Union and Professor Emeritus of Law at New York University Nadine Strossen will discuss current free speech controversies, where they fit within broader patterns of law and politics, and how we can best respond to them both within the university and more broadly. Strossen is also a Senior Fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education) and a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. 

She is the author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2023). She is also the host and project consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series on free speech that was released on public television in 2023 (and is also available on YouTube).

The event is sponsored by the UO Heterodox Academy community, the Wayne Morse Center on Law and Politics, the Oregon Humanities Center, the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages, and the Department of Political Science.