Law, Politics, and Current Affairs
June
Wednesday June 4 2:00-4:00
A Spy’s Journey: A Short Course in Recruiting Spies to Steal Secrets
Do you know what it takes to be a spy? This class dispels many of the mistaken notions of espionage. As a former CIA and Army intelligence officer, Tom Hofer explains how an operative uses psychological profiling to assess and develop a potential agent. Using highlights from his 40 years as an intelligence professional, he will remove the cloak of secrecy about modern espionage.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Thomas J. Hofer is a retired CIA and U.S Army Intelligence professional whose military and civilian career spanned nearly 40 years and 26 countries. In his final military assignment, Tom served as an instructor with the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine operations course. From 2004 to 2014, Tom was a clandestine operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, assigned to overseas and domestic areas. Fluent in Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, and Czech, he has used his language talents in assessing, recruiting, and debriefing foreign agents overseas and at home. He is also proficient in cybersecurity issues, having participated in numerous human intelligence operations domestically and overseas. He currently resides in south Tampa with his spouse, Jelena.
This program is sponsored by Mark and Genevieve Crozier
Thursday June 5 10:00-12:00
CIA and KGB: From Cold War to Counterterrorism
This session will trace the history of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) from the 1960s to the present. Mr. Hofer, drawing from his knowledge of KGB and CIA operations, will highlight the intelligence successes and failures of both government intelligence services. He will describe in detail the creation of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in the early 1990s, its activities, and its structure. Mr. Hofer will also describe the evolution of the CIA as it pivoted from its Cold War activities to Counterterrorism.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Thomas J. Hofer is a retired CIA and U.S Army Intelligence professional whose military and civilian career spanned nearly 40 years and 26 countries. In his final military assignment, Tom served as an instructor with the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine operations course. From 2004 to 2014, Tom was a clandestine operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, assigned to overseas and domestic areas. Fluent in Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, and Czech, he has used his language talents in assessing, recruiting, and debriefing foreign agents overseas and at home. He is also proficient in cybersecurity issues, having participated in numerous human intelligence operations domestically and overseas. He currently resides in south Tampa with his spouse, Jelena.
This program is sponsored by Mark and Genevieve Crozier
Friday June 13 10:00-12:00
Global Rivalry: Navigating the New Cold War Between China and the U.S
Widely dubbed as a New Cold War, Cold War II or even a forthcoming World War III, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States are now locked in a global competition for power and leadership to recenter and reorder the world. In this course, we will discuss briefly the nature and the evolution of the USChina relationship, the equally significant yet highly asymmetrical stakes for the two sides, and the US responses. We will consider a strategic framework with ranked objectives and illustrative methods for the world, including the Chinese people, to holistically manage, benefit from, and prevail in the PRC-USA rivalry. We will also reflect on the symbolic and consequential role of the dispute over the future of Taiwan.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. Fei-Ling “Phil” Wang is professor of international affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He also taught at the U.S. Military Academy , U.S. Air Force Academy, and guest-lectured at numerous universities including Sciences Po, National Taiwan University, Chinese Renmin University, University of Tokyo and Yonsei University.
This program is sponsored by Chris and Jill Elliott
Monday June 16 2:00-4:00
Social Media’s Threat to Democracy
Conspiracy discourse has been with our nation from the start. President George Washington had to deal with allegations of conspiracy put forward by Benjamin Franklin’s grandson. From that moment until today, conspiracy discourse has played a pivotal role in our public conversations about politics and culture. What is different now, however, is the ability for conspiracy theorists to utilize today’s powerful social media platforms such as Reddit, Instagram and TikTok to energize audiences into a more participatory model of generating conspiracies. These new conspiracy theories challenge our democratic institutions as they both encourage political participation while avoiding accountability for threats, violence, and attacks on democracy. This presentation will trace the recent history of conspiracy theories through an analysis of PizzaGate and QAnon with suggestions about how we might respond to these new threats from conspiracy discourse.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. R. Jarrod Atchison serves as the John Kevin Medica Director of Debate and Professor of Communication at Wake Forest University. He is a scholar of American public address with an emphasis on public argument. His first book, A War of Words: The Rhetorical Leadership of Jefferson Davis, was published by the University of Alabama Press. His second book, We Are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776, was co-written with Dr. Michael J. Lee and published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Atchison teaches courses on argumentation theory and practice, rhetorical theory and criticism, the rhetoric of the South, and conspiracy theories.
Thursday June 19 2:00-4:00
War and Resilience: Unpacking the Dynamics of the Ukraine Conflict and Its Global Impact
This talk will provide an update on the latest developments in the Ukraine War which began with Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Beginning with a historical overview of Russian-Ukrainian relations since the collapse of the USSR, this talk will take participants on a deep dive into the changing dynamics of the war, the role of technology, and how the military landscape has shifted. Analyzing the devastating effects on civilians, the displacement of over three million Ukrainians, and the resilience of those caught in the conflict, we will investigate the social and political dimensions of the conflict. We will also pay particular attention to its religious dimensions, and particularly the role of the recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an independent entity from Moscow by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2019, as a driver of the conflict and motivating factor for the Putin regime in prolonging the war. We will underscore the importance of understanding the international response, from sanctions to alliances, and how the war has disrupted global markets. Participants will also take a look at how the war is reshaping national identities and the long-term psychological toll on both Ukraine and Russia.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Eren Tasar is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor in the History Department at UNC Chapel Hill, where he has taught since 2013. His interests are the religious and social history of Soviet Central Asia. Tasar’s first book, Soviet and Muslim: the Institutionalism of Islam in Central Asia, examined Soviet policies toward Islamic institutions. His 24 lecture video series about the history of Central Asia since ancient times for The Great Courses was released in January 2025. Tasar has two forthcoming books, Muslim Atheism in Central Asia, which is under review with the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, and Central Asia from Antiquity to the Present, which is under contract with Oxford University Press.
This program is sponsored by Mary Beth Allen and Janis Erikson
Friday June 20 10:00-12:00
Digital Warfare: Unmasking Russian Misinformation and Its Threat to European Democracies
In an era of digital warfare and hybrid threats, Russian misinformation has become one of the most powerful tools in shaping political narratives across Europe. Join us for an eye-opening lecture on how disinformation campaigns are impacting European societies, influencing elections, and challenging democratic institutions. Professor Tasar will describe the tactics and tools Russia uses to spread misinformation, including social media manipulation, fake news, and state-sponsored narratives. He will explain how these campaigns are affecting elections, polarizing public opinion, and undermining trust in democratic processes across the continent. Participants will look at how misinformation intersects with cyberattacks and the broader landscape of hybrid warfare in Europe. Tasar will offer specific examples of Russian misinformation campaigns targeting countries like Ukraine, France, Germany, and the UK, and speculate about their long-lasting effects. Finally, he will discuss strategies and solutions for countering Russian misinformation, including the role of media literacy, government intervention, and international cooperation.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Eren Tasar is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor in the History Department at UNC Chapel Hill, where he has taught since 2013. His interests are the religious and social history of Soviet Central Asia. Tasar’s first book, Soviet and Muslim: the Institutionalism of Islam in Central Asia, examined Soviet policies toward Islamic institutions. His 24 lecture video series about the history of Central Asia since ancient times for The Great Courses was released in January 2025. Tasar has two forthcoming books, Muslim Atheism in Central Asia, which is under review with the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, and Central Asia from Antiquity to the Present, which is under contract with Oxford University Press.
This program is sponsored by Mary Beth Allen and Janis Erikson
July
Tuesday July 1 10:00-12:00
Democracy vs. Authoritarianism: A Crossroads for the 21st Century
According to a 2024 Pew Research Poll 32% of Americans believe that “rule by a strong leader or the military would be a good way of governing their country.” This corresponds with a 20-year decline in the civil liberties and human rights protections of citizens in countries with democratic institutions as reported by Freedom House in 2024. These reports suggest we are at a crossroads between two systems: liberal democracy, promoted by the United States and its Western allies as the ideal form of government since the end of World War II; and authoritarianism, a form of government with a long pedigree and a bloody history in the twentieth century. But is the relationship between these systems a simple dialectic, or do democracy and dictatorship share a more complicated connection? Join Max Owre as he reviews the themes that will animate a new course to be offered at UNC-CH in Fall 2025.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Max Owre is the Executive Director of Carolina Public Humanities. A graduate of the University of Vermont, he obtained his PhD in modern European history from UNCCH in 2008. Max is a lecturer in the History Department, teaching courses in European, world and colonial history since 2007. Max is a principal organizer, and frequent host and moderator of CPH Events. He also lectures frequently for CPH on various topics in French and European history
This program is sponsored by Ed Mawyer
Tuesday July 8 10:00-12:00
The Culture Wars at 100: A Century After Scopes
One hundred years is a long time in politics, less in science, and even less in religion. This year marks the centennial of the best-known intersection of those three forces in American culture: the “Tennessee Monkey Trial.” Seen narrowly, Tennessee v. Scopes was a small-town criminal prosecution under a largely symbolic state law against teaching about human evolution in public schools. Given a broader meaning in a culturally divided era, it came to represent a complex clash pitting resurgent American evangelicalism against progressive notions of science, religion, and liberty that some saw as a battle for the soul of America. Over time, it grew to symbolize the sort of multi-sided and highly-charged confrontations that continue to divide Americans over laws, regulations, and court decisions involving contested visions of individual rights, religious freedom, and popular control over matters of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Ed Larson holds the Darling Chair in Law and is University Professor of History at Pepperdine University. Recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, Larson received a Ph.D in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a law degree from Harvard. He taught for twenty years at the University of Georgia, where he chaired the history department. The author of fifteen books and over eighty published articles, his books also include A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800; Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory; and New York Times bestsellers, The Return of George Washington, 1783-1789 and Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership. Larson recently published, American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795. His next book, Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters, is due out in November, 2025.
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
Friday July 11 10:00-12:00
The Press and the Trump Administration
Six months into President Donald J. Trump’s second term, how is it going? This lecture will examine the array of actions that Trump has taken or promised to take, including lawsuits against news organizations such as ABC News and the Des Moines Register; the use of FCC regulatory and licensing authority to crack down on perceived enemies; subpoenaing of journalists; the use of social media channels to berate, harass and demean reporters; and the relative role of traditional news sources vs. alternative media like X and TruthSocial. This talk is non-partisan; we will look analytically at the 47th president’s relationship with the press and examine the ways in which independent media have or have not responded.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Sewell Chan joined the Columbia Journalism Review as executive editor in 2024. Previously, he was editor in chief of the Texas Tribune from 2021 to 2024, during which the nonprofit newsroom won its first National Magazine Award and was a Pulitzer finalist for the first time. From 2018 to 2021 he was a deputy managing editor and then the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Chan worked at the New York Times from 2004 to 2018 as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy op-ed editor, and international news editor. He began his career as a local reporter at the Washington Post in 2000. He serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Freedom House and the Henry Luce Foundation.
This program is sponsored by Terry Adamson and Ede Holiday
Monday July 14 10:00-12:00
The Collapse of Trust in News — and How to Win It Back
Trust in news is arguably at an all time low. Many Americans have lost confidence in the press, citing concerns about bias, sensationalism, exaggeration or even deception. It’s tempting to look back to the days of Walter Cronkite with nostalgia. But this lecture will argue that the postwar era (1945-Watergate) was actually a historical aberration, and that polarization in news today reflects older traditions in journalism including the hyper-partisan press of the early Republic, penny press and the yellow press. Looking forward, we’ll examine how trust in news has been lost and how serious, committed journalists can win it back.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Sewell Chan joined the Columbia Journalism Review as executive editor in 2024. Previously, he was editor in chief of the Texas Tribune from 2021 to 2024, during which the nonprofit newsroom won its first National Magazine Award and was a Pulitzer finalist for the first time. From 2018 to 2021 he was a deputy managing editor and then the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Chan worked at the New York Times from 2004 to 2018 as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy op-ed editor, and international news editor. He began his career as a local reporter at the Washington Post in 2000. He serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Freedom House and the Henry Luce Foundation.
This program is sponsored by Terry Adamson and Ede Holiday
Tuesday July 15 10:00-12:00
Higher Education in the Political Cross Hairs?
Until recently, a college degree was widely considered a reliable path to success in life. Higher education has now become a political and legal battlefield. To critics, colleges and universities do not educate; they indoctrinate. Among the most significant issues at stake: the role of the Department of Education; political interference in academic governance; defunding academic departments or programs; restricting curriculum content; political bias in hiring and promotion; elimination of tenure; elimination of affirmative action and related DEI initiatives; transgender participants in sports; free speech and cancel culture; and the need for more skills-based content in college curriculums. Is the value of a college education in serious need of reconsideration? Our speakers have extensive experience as higher education leaders in both the private and public sectors. They will discuss how and why this debate emerged but also provide insight into the trajectory of the debate going forward.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
A nationally recognized leader in public policy, Margaret Spellings serves as president & CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center. Spellings previously served as president & CEO of the non-partisan think tank, Texas 2036. Her extensive leadership experience in state and federal government includes service as U.S. Secretary of Education, White House Chief Domestic Policy Advisor, Senior Policy Advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush, president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and president of the 17-institution University of North Carolina System.
Thomas W. Ross is President Emeritus of the 17- campus University of North Carolina having served as President from 2011-2016. Prior to becoming President of the UNC System, Ross served as President of Davidson College, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts, a Superior Court judge, chief of staff to a U. S. Congressman, a member of a Greensboro, NC law firm and as a Professor of Public Law and Government at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Government. He was the first Sanford Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy at the Duke University Sanford School for Public Policy. He currently serves as the Lead Independent Director of Bausch & Lomb Company, a Canadian eye care company.
This program is sponsored by Esther and Jim Stokes
Friday July 18 10:00-12:00
Shifting Alliances: Navigating the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changing World
The global world order is at a potential inflection point, shaped by a new U.S. presidential administration, a rising China, and a surge in global conflicts. What do these developments mean for the future of U.S. foreign policy, peace, and security? This presentation examines the critical issues that lie ahead, drawing insights from within and beyond the U.S. security community. Can the United States sustain its leadership on the world stage, and if so, what strategies will be most effective? Will the U.S. continue to wield its power as it has since the Cold War, or are we on the brink of a new paradigm? Moving beyond partisan politics, Professor Matthew Auer will offer a forward-looking analysis of emerging flashpoints and areas of concern, providing a nuanced perspective on the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of the U.S. and the global community
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Matthew Auer is the Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. He oversees three academic departments, four research centers, and more than 2,000 students who are studying political science, international affairs, and public administration and policy. His research focuses on environmental risk management and environmental policy. He has served as the principal investigator of a 5-year government project to promote forest conservation in the largest intact rainforest in West Africa.
This program is sponsored by Lee and Chesley Garrett
Monday July 21 10:00-12:00
Trump 2.0: A Conversation with Andrew Weissmann and Benjamin Wittes
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Andrew Weissmann, a CLE favorite, and Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, will discuss the Trump 2.0 administration’s impact on the United States Department of Justice, the FBI, the Intelligence Community and national security. Has the threat to liberal democracy and authoritarian capture that many predicted prior to the election materialized? If not, what “guardrails” have held, and can they continue to do so? If so, what strategies remain available to push back given the extraordinary legal powers delegated to the President in the Constitution and by Congress? How successful has Trump been in “reining in” the media and silencing those opposed to him, either by initiating criminal investigations or chilling their speech through civil proceedings? Weissmann and Wittes will assess the response of the courts to Trump’s assertions of executive power and his administration’s attempt at “structural deregulation” of administrative agencies. Expect a deep dive into the activities of the President, the administrative state and the courts by two of the country’s foremost thinkers about democracy, national security and the rule of law.
LOCATION TBD - MORE INFO TO COME!
Andrew Weissmann is a Professor of Practice at New York University School of Law. He served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office and as Chief of the Fraud Section in the U.S. Department of Justice. He is the author of “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.” He also served as General Counsel for the F.B.I., Director of the Enron Task Force, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 15 years in the Eastern District of New York, where he served as the Chief of the Criminal Division. He is a frequent MSNBC news contributor on matters related to federal and state prosecutions of high-profile political figures. He and Mary McCord are co-hosts of the podcast “Main Justice.”
Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief and co-founder in 2010 of Lawfare, a non-profit multimedia company addressing “Hard National Security Choices.” He is also a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution where he is the research director in public law. Wittes covered the Department of Justice for the Legal Times and was an editorial writer for the Washington Post from 1997 to 2006. He is the author of several books, including “Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump’s War on the World’s Most Powerful Office” (2020) with Susan Hennessey.
This program is sponsored by Jack Sapolsky and Richard Bordeaux & Stephanie and Bill Reeves
Wednesday July 30 2:00-4:00
Birthright Citizenship: A Constitutional Debate in the Age of Originalism
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” That this provision guarantees “birthright citizenship” to everyone except the children of foreign diplomats stood as a virtually unquestioned feature of American constitutional law for more than a century. Recently, however, a small group of conservative legal scholars has endorsed a radically different interpretation, arguing that the Constitution grants citizenship only to the children of American citizens. Although this interpretation has lingered mainly on the fringes of American constitutional law for the past two decades, President Donald Trump dramatically endorsed it in January 2025 in an executive order issued on the first day of his second term. The Supreme Court may weigh in or give some hints as to how it might resolve this issue in the near future. This lecture will examine the history of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, the arguments for and against the two competing interpretations, what these arguments can teach us about “originalism” as a method of constitutional interpretation, and the implications of the debate over birthright citizenship for American law, politics, and culture.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
William Lasser is the Director of the Clemson Honors College and Alumni Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Clemson University. A graduate of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is the author of numerous books and articles on law and American politics, including, The Supreme Court and Critical Realignment; The Limits of Judicial Power: the Supreme Court and American Politics; Benjamin Cohen: Architect of the New Deal; The Supreme Court and the Political Process; and Was There a Switch in Time: Justice Roberts and the Constitutional Revolution of 1937. He has written extensively for the Atlanta Constitution and other newspapers and has made numerous appearances on radio talk shows and on local and cable television. Lasser has taught courses in constitutional law and American government for the past 25 years.
August
Tuesday August 5 10:00-12:00
Fascism Unbound: Exploring the Rise of Transnational Movements Then and Now
With the recent rise of far-right governments around the world, fascism is back in the news. But what is fascism? And how do we identify a “fascist”? These questions are hauntingly similar to those of the interwar period. When Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922, he declared that fascism was “not for export.” Nonetheless, far-right nationalists across Europe borrowed from Mussolini’s fascism, creating hybrid, syncretic movements that scholars have labeled “transnational fascism.” This session uses the concept of transnational fascism to analyze illuminating, historical case studies, including Mussolini’s Italy, Adolf Hitler’s Germany, Gyula Gömbös’s Hungary, and Kārlis Ulmanis’s Latvia. Ultimately, the session will unveil the appeal of transnational fascism, both historically and in the present day
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. Jordan Kuck is associate professor of history and chair of Humanities at Brevard College. Dr. Kuck is an expert on the modern history of Northeastern Europe, and his research deals with the history of nationalism and authoritarianism in the Baltic States during the interwar period. Dr. Kuck has published chapters in edited volumes that marked the centennial of Latvian independence and contributed chapters to three recent or forthcoming books, Dictatorship and Daily Life in Twentieth Century Europe, Transnational and Transatlantic Fascism in East Central and Southeastern Europe, 1918–2018, and Food and Food Policies under 20th-Century European Dictatorships. Dr. Kuck is also currently working on a manuscript on the Kārlis Ulmanis regime in Latvia. Dr. Kuck has also given high-profile public talks, including as a spotlight speaker for the World Affairs Council’s national conference in Washington, D.C. He has received in support of his research a Fulbright, a U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, as well as a grant from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.
Friday August 8 10:00-12:00
Judging the Court: The Evolving Role of the Supreme Court in Modern America
In the Federalist 78 Alexander Hamilton called the Supreme Court an “intermediary” between the “People” and the legislature, as the Court served as a “bulwark” for a limited Constitution. Some contemporary judicial critics challenge this notion, as public opinion of the Supreme Court has decreased, long-standing precedents have been overturned, and personal issues with the justices have created controversies. Others see the Supreme Court as protecting the fundamental and essential principles of the United States’ founding. All perceptions, of course, are filtered by partisan ideology in these modern times. This presentation will examine the current Supreme Court, putting these issues in historical context and placing emphasis on cases from the 2024-2025 term.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Todd Collins is a Professor and Department Chair in Political Science and Public Affairs at Western Carolina University. He has a law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and a PhD from the University of Georgia. He is a frequent speaker on the U.S. courts. His research focuses on constitutional law and judicial politics with numerous publications in law reviews and academic journals.
Monday August 11 2:00-4:00
Our Dishonesty Crises: How Technology is Eroding Honesty
Dishonesty has always been with us. But in recent years new technology has led to a variety of dishonesty crises, in which being dishonest is easier and more tempting than it has ever been in the past. We will look closely at three examples. In the first, deepfake videos which represent people saying and doing things they never did, are becoming easier to make and harder to detect, with implications for everything from our elections to the war between Ukraine and Russia. In the second, it has become easier than ever to become a celebrity due to TikTok and other forms of social media, but that also increases the threat of dishonest behavior. In the third, professors are drowning in a wave of academic cheating by students using ChatGPT and other AI. All is not lost, however, as we will also see some practical strategies to help us resist these dishonesty crises.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Christian B. Miller is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He was most recently the Director of the Honesty Project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. He is the author of over 120 academic papers as well as Moral Psychology with Cambridge University Press (2021) and four books with Oxford University Press, Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (2013), Character and Moral Psychology (2014), The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (2017), and Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (2021). He is a science contributor for Forbes, and his writings have also appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Slate, The Conversation, Newsweek, Aeon, and Christianity Today.
This program is sponsored by Richard and Honey Shackelford
Friday August 29 10:00-12:00
Immigration—Why Are We Fighting About Something that Will Save Us?
We are a country of immigrants: the Statue of Liberty towers over Ellis Island, yet we do not welcome immigrants today. The immigration system is broken, and not for the first time. Political leaders, spurred on by a small fraction of nativists, have repeatedly stopped much of the world from immigrating to the US. Think of the Chinese, Japanese, Irish, Italian, and Afghan immigrants, and contrast that to the welcoming given to the Vietnamese. Thousands from Latin America, and a smaller number from Africa and the Middle East, are seeking refuge on our southern border despite not coming close to meeting the carefully crafted statutory definitions of asylum and refugee. This presentation will discuss the history of immigration in the United States, what went wrong, where it is headed under President Trump, and how to fix it.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Charles H. (“Chuck”) Kuck is the Founding Partner of Kuck Baxter LLC in Atlanta, Georgia. Chuck served as the National President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association from 2008-2009. He also served as President of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers from 2010-2014, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Law for 24 years, currently at Emory Law School. He was named one of the top 5 immigration attorneys in the world by Chambers & Partners again in 2023, the “Best Lawyer-Immigration” in Georgia by Best Lawyers in 2025, a Global Elite Thought Leader by Who’s Who Legal in 2025, and previously named one of the “100 Most Influential Georgians” by Georgia Trend magazine. He has practiced immigration law for over 36 years, has successfully litigated tens of thousands of immigration cases, has litigated in Federal Court against the immigration agencies in more than 300 cases, has spoken at numerous legal and business conferences on all types of immigration related topics, has testified in Congress on various aspects of Immigration Law and Immigration Reform, is frequently quoted in the national press, appears regularly on national and local television and cable news outlets, and is a fierce advocate for immigrants and America.