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The St. Olaf College Institute for Freedom and Community will host a wide range of speakers on campus this fall to discuss issues at the heart of American democracy, from the path forward on immigration policy to mobilizing young voters in a polarized political environment.

The events in the Democracy and Dialogue series are free and open to the public, and most will also be streamed and available for on-demand viewing online.

St. Olaf Professor of Political Science Chris Chapp, the Morrison Family Director of the Institute for Freedom and Community, notes that this speaker series is especially relevant in an election year.

“Students are craving more information about politics and policy,” Chapp says. “The speaker series is also an opportunity to model civil dialogue, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning in a political climate where healthy dialogue and discussion are often in short supply.”

In addition to public presentations, the fall speakers will visit St. Olaf classes, attend receptions, and present students with the opportunity to ask questions and engage with their work on a deeper level.

“Students are craving more information about politics and policy. The speaker series is also an opportunity to model civil dialogue, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning in a political climate where healthy dialogue and discussion are often in short supply.”

— Morrison Family Director of the Institute for Freedom and Community Chris Chapp

The fall series will kick off on September 17 with a Constitution Day Lecture by Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor of cybersecurity law at the United States Naval Academy, titled “Freedom of Speech in a World of Misinformation.” His talk will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Buntrock Commons Viking Theater and will be streamed online.

Kosseff is the author of Liar in a Crowded Theater, a book that examines “the pervasiveness of lies, the legal protections they enjoy, the harm they cause, and how to combat them.” He will discuss the years of research and court documents at the foundation of this book, and the solutions he sees for minimizing the harms of misinformation. Before joining the Naval Academy, Kosseff practiced First Amendment and cybersecurity law in Washington, D.C. He previously worked as a newspaper journalist and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting and the recipient of the George Polk Award for national reporting.

The fall series will continue on September 23 with a lecture by Andrea Flores, an attorney and policy expert who has spent her career advising lawmakers on reforms to the immigration system. Her talk, titled “The Path Forward on Immigration Policy,” is co-hosted by the Office of Community and Belonging. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Buntrock Commons Viking Theater and will also be streamed online.

Flores is the vice president of immigration policy and campaigns at FWD.us, a bipartisan immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization. She recently served as chief counsel in the U.S. Senate, where she helped negotiate a bipartisan bill to protect federal judges. Previously, she served as the director of border management on the National Security Council and was a member of the Biden-Harris transition team. She led the American Civil Liberties Union’s national immigration advocacy work and served as a policy advisor on battleground state policy issues for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Flores also served three years in the Obama Administration, both at the White House Domestic Policy Council and the Department of Homeland Security. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and her policy expertise has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker.

On October 24 the IFC will host a lecture by D. Sunshine Hillygus, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, on “Mobilizing Young Voters in a Polarized Political Environment.” Her talk will begin at 4 p.m. in the Buntrock Commons Viking Theater and will be streamed online. Following the talk, Hillygus will hold a reception in the Flaten Art Museum as part of the fall exhibit Practicing Democracy: 150 Years of St. Olaf Student Civic Engagement.

Hillygus has published widely on the topics of political behavior, campaigns and elections, public opinion, and survey methodology. She is co-author of Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action, The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Political Campaigns, and The Hard Count: The Social and Political Challenges of the 2000 Census. She is a leader of the American National Election Studies, director of the Duke Initiative on Survey Methodology, and co-director of the Duke Polarization Lab.

The fall series continues on October 29 as the IFC and the Office of Community and Belonging co-host a conversation with Khalil Shikaki and Dahlia Scheindlin on “The Prospect for Peace: Palestinian and Israeli Public Opinion.” The event will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Tomson Hall 280. 

Shikaki is a professor of political science and director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah. He is a member of the steering committee of the Arab Barometer and is a senior fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. His most recent publications include Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East, with Abdel Monem Said Aly and Shai Feldman.

Scheindlin is a political strategist and a public opinion researcher who has advised on nine national campaigns in Israel and worked on elections, referendums, and public affairs campaigns in 15 other countries over the last 25 years. A policy fellow at Century International, Scheindlin’s writing has appeared in Haaretz, The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, among other publications. She is also the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled.

The IFC fall series will conclude on December 9 with Marquette University Professor of Political Science Julia Azari, who will deliver the keynote address at the St. Olaf Undergraduate Research Conference on the Elections. Hosted biannually, the conference features panel presentations and poster sessions with students who analyzed the elections through exit polling and other research as part of Chapp’s Parties and Elections course. Azari’s keynote address, titled “Making Sense of the 2024 Elections,” will begin at 6 p.m. in the Buntrock Commons Viking Theater. It will be streamed online. 

An active public-facing scholar, Azari has published commentary on presidential and party politics in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, FiveThirtyEight, Politico, Vox, and MSNBC. Azari is the author of Delivering the People’s Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate and co-editor of The Presidential Leadership Dilemma and The Trump Legacy. She has a forthcoming book on race and presidential impeachment and is working on a book about political parties and vice presidential candidates.

In addition to these speakers, the IFC is also co-hosting a series of events at the Northfield Public Library aimed at providing voters with insight into media literacy during the 2024 elections. The events will include members of the St. Olaf library staff. In the days following the election, Chapp will also host a living room conversation about the election results in a casual Q&A setting as part of the Practicing Democracy exhibit in Flaten Art Museum. More details on these events can be found on the IFC Democracy and Dialogue page.

Established at St. Olaf in 2014, the Institute for Freedom and Community encourages free inquiry and meaningful debate of important political and social issues among students, faculty, and the general public. The Institute sponsors a range of programming opportunities, in addition to the lecture series, to further cultivate civil discourse within the context of the liberal arts.