In her compelling new book, The Master-Servant Doctrine: How Old Legal Rules Haunt the Modern Workplace, Oregon Law Professor Liz Tippett reveals through historical context and contemporary case studies how modern employment law and management practices remain tainted by the centuries-old “master-servant” doctrine, which gives employers significant power over workers. In this talk, Tippett will share insights relevant for advocates, legal scholars, and anyone who’s ever worked a terrible job.

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by UO's Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics. Co-sponsored by the University of Oregon School of Law.

Join us for a conversation with Julián Castro, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, and former mayor of San Antonio, on Wednesday, April 8, from 5:00 - 6:30 pm.

 Location: EMU Ballroom and via livestream.

 This event is free and open to the public.

Julián Castro has distinguished himself as a strong leader and successful public servant for nearly two decades. A former Democratic candidate for President, Castro served as the 16th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017, and as mayor of San Antonio from 2009 to 2014. At HUD, Castro managed 8,000 employees and a budget of more than $46 billion, and he led progress at the Department that earned it recognition as one of the most improved federal agencies. Castro also co-chaired the United States delegation to the United Nations Habitat III conference, spearheaded efforts to reduce homelessness, and created Connect Home, a public-private partnership to deliver broadband to public housing residents.

Previously, as mayor of America’s seventh largest city, Castro brought a strong focus to expanding educational achievement and making San Antonio a leader in the 21st century global economy. Under Castro’s leadership, San Antonio implemented Pre-K4SA, a high-quality early childhood learning initiative that has earned praise as one of America’s strongest public pre-kindergarten programs. During his tenure, San Antonio ranked first on the Milken Institute’s Best Performing Cities List, received an A+ grade for doing business by Forbes, and was the only Top 10 city at the time to achieve a Triple A bond rating with each of the three major ratings agencies.

A native Texan, Castro began his public service career in 2001, becoming, at the age of 26, San Antonio’s youngest city councilman in history at the time. Castro made history again in 2012, when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, the first Latino to do so.

Following his service in the Obama administration, Castro served as the Dean’s Distinguished Fellow and Fellow of the Davila Chair in International Trade Policy at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Castro’s memoir, An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up From My American Dream was published by Little Brown in 2018. Today, Castro serves on the board of directors of the LBJ Foundation and is a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Castro serves as CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, the nation’s largest Latino-serving foundation.  Castro received a B.A. from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He and his wife, Erica, have a daughter, Carina, and a son, Cristián. Castro’s twin brother, Joaquin, represents the 20th Congressional District of Texas.

This event is part of the Wayne Morse Center’s 2025-2027 Theme of Inquiry Common Ground: Cities, Towns, and Counties Confronting Shared Challenges.

UO Libraries has partnered with the UO’s Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics to launch an annual lecture series in honor of University of Oregon alumnus and retired U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio. The DeFazio Annual Lecture promotes public knowledge of politics, governance, civic engagement, and social history by spotlighting esteemed speakers with expertise in the policy areas that DeFazio advanced during his congressional career.

Join us for the second annual lecture delivered by Nicholas Kristof, a political commentator and proud UO alum. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Born in Chicago, Kristof was raised in Yamhill, Oregon, the son of two professors at Portland State University. Growing up in rural Oregon, Kristof's lecture will address the current Wayne Morse Center theme of 'Common Ground: Cities and Towns Confronting Shared Challenges.' 

The DeFazio Annual Lecture is made possible through partnership with the UO’s Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics and by generous support from the Coquille Indian Tribe. 

This event is free and open to the community. A livestream will be available for those who can't join in person. 

Learn more by visiting: https://library.uoregon.edu/rep-peter-defazio-annual-lecture

Join us in the Knight Library Browsing Room for a lunchtime talk featuring Trevor Brown, co-author with Suzanne Mettler of Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy (Princeton University Press, Sept. 2025). A Postdoctoral Fellow in Moral and Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, Brown grew up in a rural community and is a first-generation college graduate. His research examines American politics, public policy, and the politics of inequality, with focuses on place, social class, and work. Brown’s scholarship has been published in Perspectives on Politics, World Politics, and the Journal of Policy History, and other scholarly outlets. It has been covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, among others. Brown earned his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. In Fall 2026, he will join the University of Oregon’s Department of Political Science as an assistant professor.

This in-person only event is free and open to the public.

It is part of the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics’ 2025-2027 Theme of Inquiry Common Ground: Cities, Towns, and Counties Confronting Shared Challenges.