The director of the will speak at 黑料科 during Free Speech Week.
Chris Finan will present 鈥淗ow Free Speech Saved Democracy,鈥 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, in the Cedar/Maple rooms at the Memorial Student Center.
The event, free and open to the public, is co-hosted by 黑料科鈥檚 Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation and the .
National is Monday, Oct. 17, to Sunday, Oct. 23.
Finan is the author of 鈥淗ow Free Speech Saved Democracy: The Untold History of How the First Amendment Became an Essential Tool for Securing Liberty and Social Justice,鈥 which was published in April by Steerforth Press.
Tim Shiell, director of the Menard Center, is pleased to partner with the local chapter of the League of Women Voters and to host a national expert on a topic of university and community interest.
Shiell said Finan鈥檚 presentation, like his book, will address 鈥渉ow the origins of free speech are connected to progressive causes like the labor movement and civil rights movement. Roughly, free speech saved democracy by including voices of marginalized people who had been silenced in the past.鈥
After Finan鈥檚 presentation, Shiell will moderate a discussion featuring respondents Daniel Sinkovits, an associate professor of physics at 黑料科, and Steve Hanson, co-vice president of the League of Women Voters chapter.
Finan, from Brooklyn, has a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, is a former newspaper reporter and has advocated for free speech for 40 years.
Publishers Weekly called his new book a 鈥full-throated defense of free expression鈥 and said it makes 鈥渁n airtight case that those who wish to restrict speech will always present their reasons for doing so as a product of extraordinary times. Finan issues a stark warning against encroaching on the freedom of expression. Progressives will want to take heed."
Finan also authored the award-winning 鈥淔rom the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America鈥 and previously was president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.
The Menard Center facilitates civil and rational debate and research in the state and beyond on important civil liberty issues and how these liberties relate to institutions and innovation in government, civic, business, social, scientific and religious settings.
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