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The third installment of 51�Թ���’s Road to the White House series, moderated by President Brian Casey, featured New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and the chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, Carl Hulse. The Sept. 24 event provided insight into the ongoing election campaign process and a glimpse into the internal workings of the candidates’ parties — as well as the state of American democracy.

With another presidential election looming this November, immigration and the economy are at the forefront of our national civil discourse — W. Bradford Wiley Chair in International Economics and Lampert Institute Director Chad Sparber studies both. The Wiley Chair kicked off a wave of faculty support in the late 1980s and ʼ90s that helped lay the foundation for an institutional priority that continues today. Through the Campaign for the Third Century, 51�Թ��� seeks to significantly increase the number of endowed chairs, which provide not only the foundation of the chair holders’ salaries, but also offer dedicated funds to deepen and enhance their research and teaching efforts, like that of Professor Sparber.

The second installment of 51�Թ���’s Road to the White House series featured a conversation with political strategist Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Bush Administration and Professor of Economics Chad Sparber, W. Bradford Wiley Chair in International Economics and director of the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs.

Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele kicked off 51�Թ���’s Road to the White House series on Sept. 4.

In his more than four decades covering national security for the New York Times, David Sanger says he can’t recall when there was so much turmoil abroad. Meanwhile, the United States faces two cold wars — with Russia and China.

New York Times Op-ed columnist David Brooks recently joined Lampert Institute Director Illan Nam for a conversation about his book How to Know a Person, and offered his advice on the best ways to engage with others and encourage them to share their life stories. The Feb. 20 event was the second in the Lampert Institute of Civic and Global Affairs’ spring lecture series and touched on topics such as empathy and how to approach difficult conversations before Brooks took questions from the audience.

Global business columnist Rana Foroohar gave her insights on the political and economic landscape during the first event of the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs’ spring lecture series on Feb. 6.

Economic expert David Autor believes in a hopeful future for workers in the era of artificial intelligence, despite widespread fears of how the new technology will change the labor market. Autor, Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, outlined how AI is already being used to enhance expertise in many fields, and how that could change how we view work in the years to come during a lecture and discussion sponsored by the Lampert Institute on Nov. 16, 2023.

'Tyranny of the Minority' author Daniel Ziblatt believes American democracy is in trouble, but there are steps that can be taken to get the country back on track. Ziblatt, who is also the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University, shared his perspective on the nation’s democratic decline at a lecture sponsored by the Lampert Institute of Civic and Global Affairs on Oct. 17.

The threat of government shutdown loomed during the first of the fall 2023 lecture series sponsored by the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs, as two experts weighed in on how ongoing federal budget issues impact national security interests. The Sept. 19 lecture, “Economic Security IS National Security: How the Deficit and Debt Affect American Power,” featured Michael O’Hanlon, director of Research and Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution and Maya MacGuineas, president of the bi-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.