New York Times Op-ed columnist David Brooks and New York Times White House and National Security Correspondent David Sanger will be among the featured guests welcomed to campus as part of the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs spring lecture series. spring lecture series. Global business columnist Rana Foroohar will be the featured speaker for the first event on Feb. 6, and the series will conclude with returning speaker Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in April.
“The speakers coming to campus this spring engage with myriad questions that are central to the institute’s intellectual foci: the ways in which technological advances, like AI, are shaping new battle lines of the world order; how our behavior affects the health of our political culture; possible pathways to resolving the Ukraine War; and the effect that the retreat from globalization is having upon localizing production,” says Lampert Institute Director Illan Nam. “Such important challenges deeply inform the world that our students are making their way into, and the speaker series aims to impart a richer understanding of these complex developments.”
Lampert Institute spring 2024 lecture series schedule and speakers:
Rana Foroohar, Financial Times global business columnist and CNN global economic analyst
4:30–6:00 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 6, Persson Hall Auditorium
Rana Foroohar is a global business columnist and associate editor at the Financial Times and a global economic analyst at CNN. Sought after for her astute analysis, Foroohar speaks to the changes occurring in business, politics, economics, and foreign affairs. Her weekly column is a real-time commentary on emerging markets, the effects of globalization, and the disruption of big tech. She also pens the FT’s Swamp Notes alongside Ed Luce, discussing the intersection of money and power in U.S. politics.
David Brooks, Best-selling author and New York Times op-ed columnist
4:30–6:00 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, Golden Auditorium, Little Hall
David Brooks is a bestselling author, op-ed columnist at the New York Times, and recurring commentator on PBS NewsHour. He has a gift for bringing readers and audiences alike face to face with the spirit of our times with humor, insight, and quiet passion. He is a keen observer of the American way of life and a savvy analyst of present-day politics and foreign affairs whose columns are among the most read in the nation. Brooks is the author of six books with many bestsellers among them, including How to Know a Person, The Second Mountain, The Road to Character, and The Social Animal. Brooks seeks to further explore and explain humanity and the way we live with every addition to his critically acclaimed body of work. With intellectual curiosity and emotional wisdom, he underscores the value of community and the importance of nourishing both the inner self and the social self in our journeys to live fulfilling lives.
David Sanger, New York Times White House and national security correspondent
4:30–6:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 26, Persson Hall Auditorium
David E. Sanger is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the White House and National Security Correspondent for the New York Times who covers diplomacy, cyber conflict, national security, and geopolitics. Over a 40-year career at the Times, Sanger has become known for the depth of his sources in the world of national security, his painstaking reporting and research, and his in-depth investigations into the complex events of our time. Sanger is the bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon and New Cold Wars.
Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution director of research and foreign policy and 2023–24 Lampert Institute non-resident scholar
4:30–6:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 9, Lathrop Hall 207
Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He returns as the Lampert Institute’s non-resident visiting fellow for 2023–24, after serving as the first in the new fellow position the previous academic year. O'Hanlon has taught several classes in political science and international relations and given several lectures at IJʿ, sharing his perspective on global hotspots and their interconnections, lessons from military history, and the future of U.S.-China relations.
The Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs, named after Edgar Lampert ’62, was first established in 2008 as the Institute of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and renamed the Lampert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs in 2014. The Institute's mission is to teach students to apply the fundamental tools of a liberal arts education — identifying substantive questions and reading and writing with clarity, balance, and public purpose — to the most significant policy issues of the day, during their time at IJʿ and beyond.