I’m honored to announce that I have been named the Barry Goldwater Chair in American Institutions at Arizona State University for 2023-24. This position (which has no relationship to the Goldwater Institute) was established on May 16, 1977, and according to its founding charter, is “a visiting professorship for scholars in political science, economics, history and related fields” with the goal of “honor[ing] Barry Goldwater for his distinguished service as a United States Senator and help students better understand the principles of Americanism, individual freedom, and the free enterprise system for which he has stood throughout his career.” I am profoundly moved to hold a position that has been held in the past by such luminaries as John Dean and Jack Goldsmith.
In my role as Goldwater Chair, I will be working with the Center for the Study of Economic Liberty to teach a class in the spring semester entitled “The American Dream: Economic Liberty as an American Institution,” which will explore the political, legal, and cultural ramifications of the right to economic freedom. The class will be hosted by ASU’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership.
In addition to the class, the Goldwater Chair traditionally delivers a number of public lectures, and I will be presenting three of these. The first will be on October 17 at 5 p.m. at Memorial Hall on the Tempe campus, on the subject of my book Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness. The second will be on November 28, on the subject of how licensing laws and other restrictions on economic liberty harm democratic values. The third will be announced as soon as it’s arranged.
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