IFC to host fall speaker series on strengthening democracy
The St. Olaf College Institute for Freedom and Community will host a wide range of events on campus this fall focused on strengthening democracy.
The events in the Strengthening Democracy 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 series is an important way to increase dialogue about the ways Americans must grapple with what it means to preserve and protect democracy.
“Democracy is a deeply contested concept. True to the mission of the IFC, we are bringing together speakers with different ideas about what democracy means and how to improve it,” he says.
“True to the mission of the IFC, we are bringing together speakers with different ideas about what democracy means and how to improve it.”
— Morrison Family Director of the Institute for Freedom and Community Chris Chapp
The fall series will begin with a September 22 lecture by Saikrishna Prakash, the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School. His talk, titled The Ever-Expanding Executive: Originalism and the Living Presidency, will reflect on the state of the American presidency and the separation of powers. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Viking Theater in Buntrock Commons, and will be streamed online.
Prakash has authored over 75 law review articles and has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. At the request of Democrats and Republicans, he has testified before Congress on matters of presidential removal, the Mueller Report, how Congress might better check the presidency, and the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
The fall speaker series will continue on October 14 with a lecture by University of Miami Assistant Professor Political Science Matt Nelsen ’12 titled The Color of Civics: Civic Education for a Multiracial Democracy. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Viking Theater in Bunrock Commons, and will be streamed online. Nelsen is a research consultant for the GenForward Survey at the University of Chicago, and his work explores the possibilities and challenges of forging a vibrant, multiracial democracy in the United States — including projects on political socialization in public schools and the role of geography in shaping political attitudes and preferences. Following his lecture, first-year students in Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies Kathy Tegtmeyer Pak’s Imagining Democracies Globally seminar will lead a structured intergenerational dialogue with attendees about strengthening democracy.
On November 5 the series will continue with a lecture by Brooklyn College Distinguished Professor of Political Science Corey Robin titled There But for the Grace of Wall Street Go I. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Viking Theater in Bunrock Commons, and will be streamed online. A frequent contributor to publications that include The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books and the recipient of several awards and fellowships, Robin is currently working on a book focused on a political theory of capitalism.
A few days later, the series continues with a November 10 lecture by Johns Hopkins University Professor of Political Science Hahrie Han. The inaugural director of SNF Agora, an institute dedicated to strengthening democracy, Han will deliver a lecture titled Revitalizing Democracy. Her talk is co-sponsored by the Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement and the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Viking Theater in Bunrock Commons, and will be streamed online. Han is the author of four books, and the most recent, Undivided, was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2024. Following her lecture, students in Tegtmeyer Pak’s first-year seminar will again lead a structured intergenerational dialogue with attendees about strengthening democracy.
The fall series will conclude with a December 8 lecture by Steven Levitsky, the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Levitsky, who also serves as a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation and as a senior democracy fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, will deliver a lecture titled The Great Abdication: How American Democracy Died. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Tomson Hall 280, and will be streamed online.
Levitsky’s research focuses on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions, with a focus on Latin America. He is co-author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of How Democracies Die, which was a New York Times Best-Seller published in 30 languages, and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point. He is currently writing two books: one on the collapse of American democracy and another on global democratic resilience. Following his lecture, students in Tegtmeyer Pak’s first-year seminar will lead a final structured intergenerational dialogue with attendees about strengthening democracy.
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 IFC sponsors a range of programming opportunities, in addition to the lecture series, to further cultivate civil discourse within the context of the liberal arts.