The Robert R. Wilson Distinguished Lecture was endowed by a gift to Duke to highlight important conversations in public law.
Adam Benforado
How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All
March 7, 2024
Adam Benforado, prominent legal scholar, author, and professor known for his insightful explorations of the intersections between law, psychology, and society, spoke as part of the Wilson Distinguished Lecture Series.
Raya Salter
Energy and Environmental Justice Through Community Ownership
April 13, 2023
This lecture explored the intersections of social policy, land use, energy justice and environmental justice. The event featured Raya Salter, founder of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center and a member of the NY Climate Action Council in conversation with William Barber III, the founder and CEO of the Rural Beacon Initiative, and Angella Dunston, member of the League of Conservation Voters and NC Rural Center.
Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr
Environmental Justice: Past, Present and Future
September 15, 2022
This event commemorated the 40th anniversary of protests in North Carolina. The nonviolent protests in 1982 surrounded the state's disposal of soil laced with PCBs in the predominately Black community. The protests were among the earliest for environmental justice in the United States. The Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is credited for coining the term "environmental racism," which he declared from his prison cell after being arrested during the protests. Chavis was in conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers, recent McArthur Genius Grant awardee.
John rice
Leveling Up Leadership: Building Diverse Leaders Today for Tomorrow
March 16, 2022
The Robert R. Wilson Distinguished Lecture was endowed by a gift to Duke to highlight important conversations in public law. In Spring 2022, we welcomed John Rice in conversation with Professor Deondra Rose where they discussed building diverse leaders today for tomorrow.
Christine S. Wilson
Exploring Options: Overcoming Barriers to Comprehensive Federal Privacy Legislation
September 2021
In conjunction with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Christine S. Wilson, the Sanford School of Public Policy hosted an event on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, to explore federal privacy legislation titled Exploring Options: Overcoming Barriers to Comprehensive Federal Privacy Legislation. The event brought leading academic experts together for a detailed discussion of how to make progress towards a law that will provide a regulatory structure optimizing for both the innovative and ethical use of data.
Hon. Dikgang Moseneke
My Own Liberator
January 2020
“One of the lessons I had to take in: I was born a slave, I better not die a slave. I had to be my own liberator." Dikgang Moseneke, a South African freedom fighter, became Deputy Chief Justice and helped draft the country’s interim constitution after the fall of the apartheid government.
Moseneke was arrested at age 15 for opposing apartheid, the South African system of racial segregation and oppression. He was incarcerated at Robben Island, Cape Town, alongside fellow political prisoners Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma.
Ian Haney López
Dog Whistle Politics
March 2017
Political dog whistling is the use of coded, racially charged language to sway white voters by triggering fear and resentment toward minorities. Ian Haney López is the John H. Boalt Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches in the areas of race and constitutional law and is one of the nation's leading thinkers on racism's evolution in the United States since the civil rights era.