Carol Swain to discuss religious freedom in Oct. 13 lecture at Western

Nationally recognized political scientist and writer Carol Swain will give a free, public lecture titled “The Undermining of Religious Freedom” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13, in Arntzen Hall Room 100 at Western Washington University.

Swain will lecture on one of the chapters from her latest book, just out in June, titled, “Be the People: A Call to Reclaim America's Faith and Promise.”

Raised in extreme rural poverty in Bedford, Va., with 11 other siblings, then married at age 16, Swain went from being a high school dropout with a GED to becoming a widely acclaimed university professor.

She is currently professor of Political Science and Law at Vanderbilt University and Law School, and a member of the James Madison Society at Princeton University, where she was a tenured professor of politics and public policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs before moving to Vanderbilt University.

Her work on representation and race relations has earned her national and international accolades. Her first book, “Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress” (Harvard University Press, 1993, 1995), reprinted by University Press of America (2006), was named one of the seven outstanding academic books of 1994 by Library Choice Journal. It also won: the 1994 Woodrow Wilson prize for the best book published in the U.S. on government, politics or international affairs; the D.B. Hardeman Prize for best scholarly work on Congress during 1994-1995; and was co-winner of the V.O. Key Award in political science for the best book on Southern politics. The book was cited by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Johnson v. DeGrandy (1994) and by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in Georgia v. Ashcroft (2003).

Her other books include “The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration” (Cambridge University Press, 2002), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and “Contemporary Voices of White Nations” (Cambridge University Press, 2003, edited with Russ Nieli). She also edited an anthology of student essays, titled “Race Versus Class: The New Affirmative Action Debate” (University of America Press, 1996). Her book, “Debating Immigration” (Cambridge University Press, 2007), is a collection of 18 essays by Swain and others that explore the nuances of contemporary immigration policy and citizenship in the United States.

Swain is a member of the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and was appointed to the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In addition to being a regular contributor to CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, Swain has appeared on the BBC World News, NPR, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Fox News Live, PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Washington Journal, and ABC’s Headline News. She also has written op-eds for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and USA Today. She blogs on the Huffington Post.

Sponsors for this event include: the Office of the President at Western; the WWU Political Science Department; the WWU College of Humanities and Social Sciences; the WWU History Department; the Center for Law Diversity, and Justice; the Western Christian Faculty Forum; and the Cold Beverage Student Committee.

Free parking is available in lots 12A and Student Commuter Lot C after 6 p.m. For those with state-issued disability parking passes, parking is available in lot 17 G. Other parking requests can be made to bruce.larson@wwu.edu.