Public Policy Lectures

The IAS Lectures in Public Policy are funded by an anonymous gift. Curated by the School of Social Science, this lecture series aims to address issues of broad import relevant to contemporary politics, social issues, and scientific matters.

2024	Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age	"'This isn't a new weapon, it is a new world'—Three Things Oppenheimer Tells us About Tech"

2023	Anna Tsing, Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Santa Cruz	"Patchy Anthropocene: The Feral Impacts of Infrastructure"

2022	Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University and 2021 MacArthur Fellow	“Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership”

2021	Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University	"Can Science Be Saved?"

2020	Nicholas Lemann, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism at Columbia University	"The Financial Economy: Where It Came from and What Might Come Next"

2017	Thomas Piketty, Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and at the Paris School of Economics	"Reflections on Inequality and Capital in the 21st Century"

2014	Barbara Arnwine, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law	"The State of Democracy and Voting in a Post-Shelby Era"

2013	Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch	"What Rules Should Govern Drones and the Broader ‘War’ on Terrorism?"

2012	Owen M. Fiss, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School	"The Lives of Others"

2011	Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians and Chair of Food and Water Watch	"The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water"

2010	James Hansen, climatologist and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University	"Human-Made Climate Change: A Moral, Political, and Legal Issue"

2009	David Cole, National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union	"Torture and Accountability in the 'War on Terror': What Should Be Done?"

2008	Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Chancellor of the University of Dublin	"Human Rights Challenges in the Next Decade"

2007	Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian Foreign Minister and Ambassador and chair of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, 2000	"Afghanistan and Iraq: Failed States or Failed Wars?"