For the 2024-25 academic year, the university explores the perennial but newly clamorous question of free speech. Who can, cannot, does, and does not speak in the public and private sphere? Why and why not?
An embarrassingly rich slate of speakers will join us.
This year’s Burack lecturers include Tom Sullivan, one of the leading scholars on the First Amendment (and UVM’s president emeritus to boot), and Sigal Ben-Porath, presidential professor at the University of Pennsylvania, whose Cancel Wars examines questions of free speech, inclusion, and the polarization of campus politics.
Tarleton Gillespie, a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research New England, will deliver the Zeltzerman Lecture. Gillespie studies the “implications of online media platforms as the new distributors of cultural and political discourse.”
Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union and professor emeritus at New York University, will deliver the Aiken Lecture. Strossen is best known for convictions concisely encapsulated in the title of her 2018 book, HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship.
This year’s Janus Forum disputants include Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of the free-expression advocacy group PEN America, and Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias, an assistant professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences, famous for her work in anti-discrimination law and “memory laws.” Nossel and Gliszczyńka-Grabias will debate whether the more restrictive, European/German approach to free expression is preferable to the more libertarian approach that characterizes U.S. case law.
Upcoming Schedule
2024
- September 17, Tom Sullivan, 4:30-6:00 pm, Waterman 338, Memorial Lounge
- October 29. Nadine Strossen, 4:30-6:00 pm, Alumni House, Silver Pavilion
- November 13, Tarleton Gillespie, 4:30-6:00 pm, Alumni House, Silver Pavilion
2025
- February 18, Sigal Ben.Porath, 4:30-6:00 pm, Waterman 338, Memorial Lounge
- March 7, Suzanne Nossel and Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias, 3:00-5:00 pm, Ifshin Hall, Keller Room 107
George D. Aiken Lecture Series
The George D. Aiken Lectures was founded to promote discussion in the three areas for which Senator Aiken was best known– namely, foreign affairs, energy, and agriculture–but is responsive to change within the context of those general areas. The lectures are delivered once each academic year.
Supported by an endowment created by George and Lola Aiken, the lectures, which began in 1975, provide a platform for distinctive views on critical American issues and is the University’s major annual public-policy forum. The tradition of keeping the Aiken Lectures free and open to the public endures.
Past Lectures
March 6, 2024: Zeynep Tufekci
Lessons from the Decade of Social Media
Talking with Zeynep Tufekci
Dan and Carole Burack President's Distinguished Lecture Series
The Burack Lecture lecture series brings to campus scholars, scientists, artists and writers who are acknowledged as preeminent in their discipline. In addition to enriching the academic environment, the Burack President’s Distinguished Lecture Series also helps to showcase the exceptional caliber of UVM faculty, students and programs.
Past Lectures
March 25, 2024: Nora Draper - "Privacy Resignation: How Digital Platforms Confuse, Frustrate, and Disempower Us.”
Promotional flyer (PDF) | Video Recording
November 13, 2023: Chris Danforth
Measuring the Happiness, Health, and Stories of Society through Social Media.
Danforth Video Recording | Danforth Presentation
April 11, 2024: Steve Schlozman, MD UVMMC - "Social Media and Kids (What Could Possibly Go Wrong?)"
Promotional flyer (PDF) | Video Recording
Zeltzerman Lecture Series
The Zeltzerman Lecture series was established in 1966 by Dr. and Mrs. Morris Zeltzerman in memory of their son, Michael Zeltzerman, who was a UVM graduate student in Anatomy at the time of his death in 1966. The Zeltzerman Lectureship is devoted to topics addressing the relationship between "science and other areas of knowledge concerning people as individuals or as societies."
Past Lectures
November 8, 2023: Bailey Parnell
Is Social Media Hurting Our Mental Health?
Parnell poster (PDF)
Janus Forum
Dedicated to the proposition that engaging, thoughtful, rigorous, and respectful debate remains possible even in this era of intense partisanship, the Janus Forum presents competing viewpoints on important socioeconomic issues in the public square. The Forum invites two scholars to argue different sides of a proposition, modeling the “diversity of thought” necessary, in the words of UVM’s Amplifying Our Impact, for promoting “the interplay between education and a healthy democracy.”
Past Forums
February 7, 2024: James Steyer and John Samples - Ifshin Hall, 107 Keller Room
(55 Colchester Ave)
Yes or No: Social media should be more regulated to protect and promote the best interests of democracy, public health, and personal privacy.
Steyer and Samples poster (PDF) | Video Recording