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The Center for Freedom and Western Civilization has announced its Summer Research Fellows for 2025. This year’s Fellows were honored at a dinner May 6 at the ��ݮ��Ƶ Inn with their faculty sponsors and members of the External Advisory Board.

��ݮ��Ƶ University’s Center for Freedom and Western Civilization hosted Jonathan Turley on April 22 for a discussion on freedom of speech in the United States. Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of public interest law at George Washington University and legal analyst for Fox News. His book, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage," attempts to define free speech and asks why the nation still struggles to exercise it.

Prof. Kraynak and I share the very sad news that our beloved Center colleague and friend, Prof. Alexander (Sasha) Nakhimovsky, Associate Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, passed away on June 27. Prof. Nakhimovsky led the Forum on Security and Democracy and made a substantial contribution to the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization for many years. We will miss his generosity, engagement, intellectual vivacity, energy, and enduring enthusiasm for conversations about the issues that matter most to us.

Two academic freedom experts, Keith Whittington of Yale Law School and Ulrich Baer of New York University, made their cases for the role and scope of free speech in higher education during ��ݮ��Ƶ’s 2024 Constitution Day Debate: “‘Snowflakes,’ Truth, and the Future of Academic Freedom” Sept. 12. The annual debate celebrating Constitution Day was sponsored by the Forum on Constitutional Government and the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization. 

Free speech on campus will be the focus of this fall’s 2024 Constitution Day Debate.

The Center for Freedom and Civilization hosted three speakers during the spring 2024 semester, with lectures and discussions focused on the Israel-Gaza war with Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at “The Atlantic”; the Northern Ireland Protocol with Tony Connelly, Europe editor for RTÉ News and Current Affairs; and Maxim D. Shrayer, bilingual author and professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College, read from his new memoir, “Immigrant Baggage” during the event.

On April 22, 2024, the Center celebrated the 2024 recipients of the James Madison Summer Fellowship over a lively dinner at the ��ݮ��Ƶ Inn.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promoted fascism for decades, most recently harnessing the influence of social media aimed at young Russians, according to Ian Garner, a historian and expert in Russian war propaganda.

Michael Hanratty ’24 of Barkhamsted, Conn. is the 2024 recipient of the Brian Horey ’82 Civic Freedom Award. Hanratty is the Class of 2024 valedictorian, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, majoring in economics and political science and receiving high honors in political science. As a 2023 James Madison Fellow his research project was titled “The Development of the Supreme Court’s Power of Judicial Review” and Stanley Brubaker, professor of political science, was his faculty sponsor.

Michael Bazyler, professor of law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law, and Lindsey Hagen, a JD student at the same institution, discussed how the Nuremberg trials can serve as a model for seeking justice for genocide during the Ukraine War at a lecture and discussion on Oct. 23. “Preserving the Post WWII Legal Order: The Necessity of Delivering Nuremberg-style Justice to Ukraine War Perpetrators” was hosted by the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization and co-sponsored by the Forum on the Study of Cultural Heritage and the Russian and Eurasian Studies Program.