The relationship between truth, democracy and freedom of expression will be explored in the first event of the 2021 Peter ’69 and Marilyn ’69 Coors Conversation Series.

The Sept. 9 forum will feature Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University; and Cornel West, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary.

The series, which launched in fall 2019, brings together speakers with diverse political viewpoints and provides the Ithaca campus community with a forum for intellectual discourse on difficult yet timely issues.

The hybrid event is free and open to students, faculty and staff; Cornell ID is required. It is currently scheduled to be held at the Landis Auditorium, 184 Myron Taylor Hall, from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m.; check back for COVID-19-related updates. The forum will be livestreamed and later posted on CornellCast.

George has served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the President’s Council on Bioethics. He has also served as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology.

His essays and reviews have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Review of Politics and the Review of Metaphysics. His books include “Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality” (1995), “In Defense of Natural Law” (2001) and “Conscience and Its Enemies” (2016).

West is the former professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard University and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, “Race Matters and Democracy Matters,” and for his memoir, “Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.” His most recent book, “Black Prophetic Fire” (2015), examines 19th-century African American leaders and their legacies.

West is a frequent guest on the HBO show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” as well as CNN, C-Span and the Independent Global News show, “Democracy Now!”.

The discussion will be moderated by Sheri Lynn Johnson, the James and Mark Flanagan Professor of Law at Cornell Law School.

The Cornell Political Union will host an open discussion following this event.