New Voices and New Venues: Organizing Against the Assault on Democratic Principles - 2022 Milton R. Konvitz Lecture

New Voices and New Venues: Organizing Against the Assault on Democratic Principles

Dr. Basil Smikle Jr. is a Distinguished Lecturer and Director of the Public Policy Program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. He also lectures at Columbia University in the School of International and Public Affairs and Teachers College. With over 15 years in higher education and 25 years of a career dedicated to public service, Basil regularly shares insights on electoral politics, governance, and public policy on national media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg TV. He holds a PhD in Politics and Education and an MPA from Columbia University and received a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. Previously, Basil served as the Distinguished Lecturer of Politics and Public Policy at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies.

Milton Konvitz was a founding faculty member in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and taught from 1946 until his retirement in 1973. He was also a professor in Cornell's Law School and was widely considered an authority on constitutional and labor law, and civil and human rights. Konvitz is perhaps best known for his American Ideals course, which he taught to more than 8,000 Cornell students over the course of his career, never giving the same lecture twice. "I saw the U.S. Constitution as it has been interpreted as a magnificent depository of our ideals, both individual and social," he said. His course exposed students to the great intellectual thinkers and philosophers throughout history whose writings had shaped those ideals.