RLL encourages everyone to attend this year's special edition of the Poggioli Lecture, featuring the President of Wesleyan University. As some of you are aware, Renato Poggioli was, along with Gaetano Salvemini, one of the leading anti-fascist intellectuals who sought refuge at Harvard during the years of World War II. Given the current challenges the university is facing, it seemed fitting that this year's Poggioli lecture should be delivered by one of the leading defenders of the autonomy of higher education, Michael Roth.
Michael is the author of numerous publications centered on how people make sense of the past. His last three books (all published by Yale University Press) have focused on liberal education, the most recent being The Student, A Short History (2023). His Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters (2014), was recognized with the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ Frederic W. Ness award for a book that best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education. His 2019 book, Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness, addresses some of the most contentious issues in American higher education—including affirmative action, safe spaces, and questions of free speech. Roth regularly publishes essays, book reviews, and commentaries in the national media and scholarly journals. An outspoken defender of the value of colleges and universities and their importance to democracy, he was given the PEN/Benenson Courage Award in 2025 for standing up against governmental assaults on higher education.
His March 26 lecture, entitled "From Academic Freedom to Defending Democracy: Our Task in 2026," will argue that "Although universities have conducted their affairs within monarchies and even dictatorships, modern higher education has flourished by being part of an ecosystem of freedoms" and "will examine the threats to higher education and discuss how defending our democracy, restoring our ecosystem of freedoms, is the key to revitalizing the higher education sector."
LOCATION:Fong Auditorium STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20260326T220000Z DTEND:20260326T230000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR