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The Norman and Louis Miller Lecture in Public Understanding

These lectures are free and open to the public. 

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Tom Kunkel
President Emeritus
St. Norbert College

Spring Miller Lecture

“Norbert of Xanten: The Enduring Relevance of a 950-Year-Old Peacemaker”

Thursday, April 8, 2021, at 7 p.m.
Walter Theatre, Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts
Presented with limited in-person attendance as well as virtually via Zoom 

 
Thomas Kunkel is an author, journalist, educator and president emeritus of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. Kunkel earned his B.A. in political science at the University of Evansville in 1977 and his master’s degree in humanities from there in 1979.
 
He spent much of his early career in the newspaper industry, and from 1997 to 2000 he served as editor and director of the Project on the State of the American Newspaper. From 2000 to 2008, Kunkel was dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and president of the American Journalism Review at the University of Maryland. He took the helm at St. Norbert College in 2008, leading the Catholic, Norbertine, liberal arts college until his retirement in 2017.
 
Kunkel has authored or edited seven books, including “Enormous Prayers: A Journey into the Priesthood” (1998), “Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of The New Yorker” (1995) and “Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of The New Yorker” (2015). His most recent book, Man on Fire: The Life and Spirit of Norbert of Xanten, was published in 2019.
 
The Miller Lecture promotes “unity, communication and tolerance among different cultures, religions, ethnicities and traditions.” As Kunkel notes, “that is a good definition of what Norbert was trying to do in his time, and we need those kinds of outreach and peacemaking more than ever today.”

Watch the Recording

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Nadine Strossen
John Marshall II Professor of Law
New York Law School

Fall Miller Lecture

“How Should We Resist Hate? Free Speech vs. Censorship”

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021
Rescheduled from Spring 2020

Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School, is a leading expert in constitutional law, civil liberties, and international human rights. She is the immediate past President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), the first woman to head the nation’s largest and oldest civil liberties organization. She now serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center), FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), and Heterodox Academy. When Strossen stepped down as ACLU President, three (ideologically diverse) Supreme Court Justices participated in her farewell/tribute luncheon: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and David Souter.

The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America’s "100 Most Influential Lawyers," and several other publications have named her one of the country’s most influential women. Her many honorary degrees and awards include the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017). At NYLS’s 2019 commencement, Strossen made history by receiving both the award for outstanding teaching and the award for the best book.

Strossen has made thousands of public presentations before diverse audiences around the world, including on more than 500 campuses and in many foreign countries. A frequent media commentator on legal issues, she has appeared on virtually every national news program and has published widely in both academic and general interest publications. Her 2018 book, HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship, has earned praise from ideologically diverse experts, including progressive Harvard University Professor Cornel West and conservative Princeton University Professor Robert George. HATE was selected by Washington University (in St. Louis) as its 2019 “Common Read” for all incoming students. Her earlier book, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights, was named a New York Times "notable book" of 1995.

Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced law in Minneapolis (her hometown) and New York City. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

For more information on the the Norman and Louis Miller Lecture in Public Understanding, please contact the Norman Miller Center for Peace, Justice and Public Understanding at nmc@snc.edu or call our office at 920-403-3881.
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