Jamelle Bouie, columnist for the New York Times, will be the featured speaker at the 2023 Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture Sept. 12.

Bouie’s talk, "Constitutionalism, Reform and the Press’ Role in Helping the Public Think About Institutions,” will begin at 5 p.m. in the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium in Klarman Hall.

Bouie, a former CBS News political analyst, covers U.S. politics, public policy, elections and race.

“Jamelle Bouie is one of our most incisive analysts, on topics from the Supreme Court to partisan politics,” said Tejasvi Nagaraja, assistant professor of history in the ILR School. “Amidst our frenetic and fleeting media cycle, Bouie is distinguished for his deep study of U.S. history, which has gained a greater appreciation in our era of political crisis and racial reckoning.”

Bouie’s writings have appeared in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Time and the New Yorker. He has emerged as a leading voice on the national scene, and was named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30 in Media” in 2015.

Nagaraja said Bouie’s columns interpret how history shapes our politics, how war abroad and “war at home” define our political culture and how economics underpin our law.

“Bouie's attention to constitutionalism and the media comes in a moment in which our study of history is embattled, and our political institutions are being stress tested,” he said. “Given his appreciation for America’s dynamics of contention and horizons for reform, from the post-Civil War Reconstruction to today, this is a timely topic. If civic education is essential for a deeper democracy, Bouie’s work is a most worthy contribution.”

The Kops Lecture is part of President Martha E. Pollack’s Freedom of Expression at Cornell initiative, a series of events organized to explore the significance, history and challenges of free expression and academic freedom. The initiative launches this semester and spans the 2023-24 academic year.

Daniel Kops ’39, former editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun, established the Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Program in 1990. Each year the program brings a distinguished speaker to campus through the American Studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences. The 2022 lecture featured journalist Tristan Ahtone, a member of the Kiowa tribe, and historian Robert Lee. Other past speakers include Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Amjad Atallah, April Ryan, Frank Rich, Gail Collins, Nadine Strossen, Jeremy Scahill and Dave Zirin.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.