Tom Ginsburg, the Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law at the University of Chicago, will present the 2024 William Weber Lecture in Government and Society on Tuesday, October 15.

Ginsburg also serves as the faculty director at the Forum on Free Inquiry and Expression, and the Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity. His lecture at 4:30 p.m. in the Olmsted Room will address “Surviving the Crises of Constitutional Democracy in the United States: Lessons from Abroad.”

The discussion, which is open to the public, will focus on the idea that many Americans feel that democracy in the United States is in grave danger with polarization high and institutional trust in decline. The U.S. is not alone in this regard as other constitutional democracies around the world are suffering from similar crises. Ginsburg will address the sources of institutional decay and how they might be reversed. The lecture also will approach what resources we as Americans might grasp in attempting democratic renewal.

The William Weber Lecture in Government and Society was founded by Bill Weber, a 1939 graduate of Kalamazoo College. In addition to this lectureship, Weber founded the William Weber Chair in Political Science at K. Previous speakers in this series have included civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, political commentator Van Jones and author Tamara Draut.

For more information on the William Weber Lecture, visit the Department of Political Science’s website.