DATE: 4 p.m. Nov. 9, 2007.

EVENT: Nadine Strossen, the first woman elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union, will deliver the 17th annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom. She will address the theme “Defending Freedom: Even for the Thoughts We Hate.”

“There has been a crackdown on four-letter words that don?t even have a sexual reference at all,” Strossen said. “Some are trying to extend it to Internet, cable, satellite and every other mass medium, as well.”

Strossen, professor of law at New York Law School, has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. In 1991 she took the helm of the ACLU, the nation?s largest and oldest civil liberties organization. Since the ACLU presidency is a non-paid position, Strossen also continues her faculty work.

Strossen, who makes roughly 200 public presentations per year, says the Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture series is one-of-a-kind. “I am not aware of another (lecture series) on academic freedom. That is unique. I am happy to be involved honoring courageous former faculty members.”

The lecture series was established in 1990 by the Senate Advisory Committee for University Affairs (SACUA) to honor three University faculty members?Chandler Davis, Clement Markert and Mark Nickerson?who in 1954 were called to testify before the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities. All invoked Constitutional rights and refused to answer committee questions about their political associations. As a result, the three were suspended and Nickerson was denied the summer portion of his fiscal year salary. Subsequent hearings and committee actions resulted in different outcomes. Markert was reinstated while Nickerson, a tenured professor, and Davis were dismissed from the University.

Peggie Hollingsworth, president of the U-M Academic Freedom Lecture Fund, said: “Nadine Strossen has had a central role in the national debate over whether hate speech should be tolerated on our campuses and elsewhere in society.”

The lecture is free and open to the public.

PLACE: Honigman Auditorium in the University of Michigan Law School. Central Campus map

SPONSORS: Academic Freedom Lecture Fund, American Association of University Professors University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Chapter, U-M Office of the President, U-M Office of the Vice President for Communications, Office of the Associate Vice Provost for Academic Information, Law School, the Board for Student Publications and the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs.

Academic Freedom Lecture Fund