Dare To Speak: Defend­ing Free Speech for All

Facilitated by Suzanne Nos­sel

This event already happened:
Monday, March 28, 2022
2:00PM - 3:00PM

  Location: Online via Zoom

In an era where one tweet can launch or end your career, where free speech is invoked with great pas­sion but lim­it­ed under­stand­ing, where the First Amend­ment can be mis­tak­en as a smoke­screen for hatred, learn­ing to maneu­ver the rough and tum­ble ter­rain of pub­lic dis­course has nev­er been more urgent.

In Dare to Speak, lead­ing free expres­sion advo­cate Suzanne Nos­sel argues that we can and must uphold the rights of indi­vid­u­als to speak their minds, while also work­ing assid­u­ous­ly to build a more equi­table, inclu­sive pub­lic cul­ture com­mit­ted to dis­man­tling racism and oth­er forms of big­otry. Cen­tered on 20 easy-to-grasp, prac­ti­cal prin­ci­ples, Nos­sel’s man­i­festo equips read­ers with essen­tial tools to nav­i­gate today’s diverse, dig­i­tized, and deeply divid­ed soci­ety with­out curb­ing free expres­sion. Her exam­ples include inci­dents involv­ing anti­se­mit­ic and anti-Israel speech on cam­pus and her pre­sen­ta­tion address­es how Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties can rec­on­cile their com­mit­ment to com­bat hatred and defama­tion with robust pro­tec­tions for free speech – and why they should. Nos­sel advis­es read­ers how to use lan­guage con­sci­en­tious­ly, defend the right to express unpop­u­lar views, and protest speech with­out silenc­ing it, pro­vid­ing con­crete guid­ance on how to rec­on­cile these some­times com­pet­ing imper­a­tives with­in uni­ver­si­ties, on social media, and in dai­ly life. Replete with insight­ful argu­ments, col­or­ful exam­ples, and salient advice, Dare to Speak brings much-need­ed clar­i­ty to the rag­ing debate over how whether free speech can sur­vive intact in the twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry. Suzanne Nos­sel is CEO of PEN Amer­i­ca, the writ­ers’ human rights orga­ni­za­tion devot­ed to defend­ing free expres­sion worldwide.

Suzanne Nos­sel serves as the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of PEN Amer­i­ca, the lead­ing human rights and free expres­sion orga­ni­za­tion. She is a lead­ing voice on free expres­sion issues in the Unit­ed States and glob­al­ly, writ­ing and being inter­viewed fre­quent­ly for nation­al and inter­na­tion­al media out­lets. Her pri­or career spanned gov­ern­ment ser­vice and lead­er­ship roles in the cor­po­rate and non­prof­it sec­tors. She has served as the Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer of Human Rights Watch and as Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al USA. Dur­ing the first term of the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion, Nos­sel served as Deputy Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for Inter­na­tion­al Orga­ni­za­tions, where she led U.S. engage­ment in the Unit­ed Nations and mul­ti­lat­er­al insti­tu­tions, on human rights and human­i­tar­i­an issues. Nos­sel coined the term ​“Smart Pow­er,” which was the title of a 2004 arti­cle she pub­lished in For­eign Affairs Mag­a­zine and lat­er became the theme of Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton’s tenure in office. Nos­sel is a magna cum laude grad­u­ate of both Har­vard Col­lege and Har­vard Law School.

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