When polarization threatens to overwhelm the public square, how can we strengthen the habits, values, and trust that will sustain our democracy into the future?
Join us in exploring the crisis of democracy in the United States by reckoning with problems and considering solutions. Problems include attacks on government institutions, dysfunction in political parties, and dishonesty in media. Solutions include defending equality as well as freedom, civil dialogue, rule of law, civic engagement, inclusion, and the possibility of shared reality and justice.
Representative Peter DeFazio
2023-24 Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics
Peter DeFazio served for 36 years as the U.S. Representative for Oregon’s 4th congressional district, making him the longest-serving member of Congress in Oregon history. Known as the “Tiger for the House” for his leadership on transportation, infrastructure, the environment, and progressive issues, he is, as his colleague Rep. Earl Blumenauer observed, “a legislative giant in the mold of his hero, Wayne Morse.”
Distinguished Speakers
Tim Alberta is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and staff writer for The Atlantic magazine. In 2019, he published American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. In November 2023, he will publish a new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. He will visit UO in fall 2023.
Linda Greenhouse is a Pulitzer Prize-winning legal journalist and a Senior Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and continues to write regularly for the newspaper’s opinion pages.
Anita Hill is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University. After the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, Hill became a leading figure in the fight for women's rights and against gender-based violence. Hill's most recent book is Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence (2021). She will visit UO in May 2024.
Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times op-ed columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. With his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, he has written five books, most recently Tightrope, about American inequality and how to fix it. He will visit UO in spring 2024 to coincide with the publication of his new memoir, Chasing Hope.
Events
6:30–8:00 p.m.
Tim Alberta is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and staff writer for The Atlantic magazine. In 2019, he published American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. In November 2023, he will publish a new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. This event is part of the Wayne Morse Center's 2023-25 theme of inquiry, Defending Democracy, and is funded in part by the Lorwin Lectureship on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. It will be recorded and available on the Wayne Morse Center YouTube channel a couple weeks post event.
6:00 p.m.
Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner will deliver the Rennard Strickland Lecture. Remote participation is available via Zoom. A brief Q&A session and reception will follow the lecture.
The Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center established the Rennard Strickland Lecture series to honor the legacy of late Oregon Law dean Rennard Strickland. Strickland was Osage, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, and widely regarded as a leader in Indian law and policy. The lecture's focus is Indigenous environmental leadership and community vision for the twenty-first century.
Elizabeth Kronk Warner is the Jefferson B. & Rita E. Fordham Presidential Dean and Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Dean Kronk Warner is a nationally recognized expert in the intersection of Environmental and Indian law. Former supervisor of the Tribal Judicial Support Clinic at the University of Kansas School of Law, she has taught courses in Property, Indian, Environmental, and Natural Resources Law and also teaches and coaches several moot court competition teams. Dean Kronk Warner has received several teaching excellence awards, co-authored several books on envionmental issues and Native Americans, and has over 40 articles and book chapters to her credit. A citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Dean Kronk Warner has served as an appellate judge for the Tribe and as a district judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe. Learn more: https://faculty.utah.edu/u6024740-Elizabeth_Kronk_Warner/hm/index.hml.
7:00–8:30 p.m.
This event features UO Sociology professor C. J. Pascoe discussing her new book, Nice Is Not Enough: Inequality and the Limits of Kindness at American High, which was published in August 2023.
Nice is Not Enough tells the story of American High School, a school characterized by acceptance, connection, and kindness—a school where, a prominent sign states, “there is no room for hate.” This book describes how American High, like many high schools, uses a “regime of kindness” to address persistent inequalities. By examining how this regime of kindness works at American High, Nice is Not Enough shows the limits of this approach and suggests ways we might begin to dismantle systemic inequalities in high school and beyond.
Pascoe's research focuses on inequality, youth and schooling. She is an award-winning teacher and associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon where she teaches classes on schools, inequality, social psychology and sexuality. She is also a co-editor of academic journal Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. Her book, Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, won the American Educational Research Association’s 2007 Book of the Year Award as well as an honorable mention for the American Sociological Association's Section on Sex and Gender’s Distinguished Book Award.
12:30–2:00 p.m.
Predictions and analysis with an all-star panel featuring UO professors and policy experts Stuart Chinn, Alison Gash, Chandler James, Neil O'Brian, and Dan Tichenor. Stuart Chinn is the Frank Nash Professor of Law. He writes and teaches about constitutional law, legislation, and legal and political history. The author of Recalibrating Reform: The Limits of Social Change (Cambridge), his work has also appeared in many peer-reviewed venues and law reviews. Alison Gash is a professor of political science whose research focuses on the intersection of law and social policy. She is the author of Below the Radar: How Silence Can Save Civil Rights (Oxford) and her work has appeared in Newsweek, Politico, Fortune, Washington Monthly, Slate, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Conversation. Chandler James is an assistant professor of political science who specializes in American politics, with a focus on the U.S. presidency. His research has been published in Presidential Studies Quarterly and has been supported by the American Political Science Association, the University of Chicago Council on Advanced Studies, and the Bradley Foundation. Neil O’Brian is an assistant professor of political science who studies U.S. politics, focusing on public opinion, political parties and polarization. Neil’s recent work examines how people’s perceptions of politics and current events affect their political attitudes. He is writing a book on the 1960s racial realignment and its effect on party polarization. Daniel Tichenor is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Social Science and a Senior Scholar and Program Director at the Wayne Morse Center. He has published numerous books and articles on national political institutions, social movements, immigration, labor, and civil rights. His most recent books are Rivalry and Reform (Chicago) and with Alison Gash, Democracy's Child (Oxford).
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Linda Greenhouse is a Pulitzer Prize-winning legal journalist. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and is currently Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School.
This event is part of the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics 2023-25 theme, Defending Democracy. It is funded in part by the Lorwin Lectureship on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Check out the resource guide created by the UO Law Library for this event.
Join us for our Lorwin Lecture on Civil Rights & Civil Liberties by award-winning author, educator, and lawyer Anita Hill. In partnership with the Wayne Morse Center
5:00–6:30 p.m.
Join us for our Lorwin Lecture on Civil Rights & Civil Liberties by award-winning author, educator, and lawyer Anita Hill. In partnership with the Wayne Morse Center
