Past Events

The Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs will be co-sponsoring an evening of conversation with author Robert Chase, as he discusses his new book, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners' Rights in Postwar America, a history of the prisoners’ rights movement in Texas in the second half of the 20th century told from the vantage point of prisoners themselves. 

Talitha LeFlouria, Associate Professor of History and Fellow of the Mastin Gentry White Professorship in Southern History, will introduce Chase. Following Chase's talk, Michele Deitch, Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and UT Law and PJIL's Director, will moderate a panel discussion with local advocates, Savannah Eldrige (Abolish Slavery National Network) and Jorge Renaud (Latino Justice), who are working to advance fair prison labor practices.

This important and timely event is hosted by the William Wayne Justice Center at UT School of Law and co-sponsored by PJIL; UT's Initiative for Law, Societies and Justice; Law Students for Black Lives; Public Defense Group; Public Interest Law Association. Click here to learn more!

Registration for this event is not needed. We hope to see you there!

On Thursday, November 3, the Clements Center for National Security, the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, the McCombs Business, Government & Society Department, and the Defense Research Advancement in the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors, will host Chris Miller, Assistant Professor of International History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, for a book talk on his upcoming release Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. Join us at 12:15 pm in Bass Lecture Hall, The LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Chris Miller is Assistant Professor of International History at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has previously served as the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, a lecturer at the New Economic School in Moscow, a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research associate at the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Academy. His first book, "The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR," was published in 2016. His second book, "Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia," was published in March 2018. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his BA in history from Harvard University. For more information, see www.christophermiller.net.

Registration is not required for this event. For more information, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

Tye Rush (CV / Paper) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He studies the role of race and ethnicity in the politics of election laws, voting rights, and representation. His research focuses on representation, institutions, electoral systems, voting rights, and racial politics

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"I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. My research addresses questions in race and ethnic politics, voting rights, elections, and state politics. My current work focuses on the politics of voting laws.

I am a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow and a University of California President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellow (2021-2022). My dissertation project is supported by funding from the Princeton Dissertation Scholars Program through the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton University. I currently serve as a Senior Policy Fellow at the Voting Rights Project, the flagship project of the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative (LPPI), where I conduct research that informs policy on voting rights, redistricting, elections, and electoral institutions. Previously, I held an appointment as a research fellow at the UCLA Institute for Inequality and Democracy at Luskin and as the Voting and Redistricting Fellow at Common Cause.

I was born in San Bernardino, California. Prior to pursuing a doctoral degree at UCLA, I graduated from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) with a B.A. in Political Science/Public Service. During my undergraduate education, I served as a Mellon Advancing Intercultural Studies Fellow at the Center for Ideas and Society."

On Wednesday, November 2, the Strauss Center is hosting former federal prosecutor Norman Barbosa as he discusses prosecuting cyber crimes. America’s computer networks are under attack.  Hackers steal trade secrets, personal data, and government records.  Ransomware has paralyzed schools, hospitals, oil pipelines, and government agencies. Mr. Barbosa will discuss the variety of cyber crimes that can be charged under federal law, how the Justice Department investigates and prosecutes these cases, and how prosecution fits into the U.S. government’s broader cybersecurity strategy. 

This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. Lunch will be served. For more information on this event, contact Susan Crane at scrane@austin.utexas.edu.

Biography

In his capacity as a federal prosecutor, Norman Barbosa prosecuted cyber crimes as an Assistant United States Attorney in Seattle. He currently serves as Associate General Counsel for Law Enforcement, National Security and Telecom at Microsoft.

Ana Luisa Oaxaca Carrasco (CV/Paper) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research in American Politics focuses on Urban Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Politics, Representation, and Immigration Politics and Policy. She studies how American political institutions shape the representation of immigrant, racial and ethnic constituencies in U.S. municipal government. 

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My research has been supported by the Princeton Bobst Center for Peace and Justice Dissertation Scholars Program, the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, the APSA Centennial Center Research Grant, the APSA Fund for Latino Scholarship, and the UCLA Political Psychology Fellowship.​

I hold an MA in Political Science from UCLA and a BA in Political Science with a minor in Economics from The University of New Mexico. Outside of Academia, I enjoy long walks on the beach, painting in pastels and both red AND green chile, I can never pick just one!"

On Tuesday, November 1, the Clements Center for National Security, the Strauss Center of International Security and Law, the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the UT-Austin Department of History will host Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, for a book talk on his forthcoming release Civil War by Other Means. Join us at 12:15 pm in MAI 212, the Main Building at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a professor in the University's Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Professor Suri is the author and editor of eleven books on politics and foreign policy, most recently: Civil War By Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy. His other books include: The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office; Liberty’s Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama; Henry Kissinger and the American Century; and Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente. His writings appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Atlantic, Newsweek, Time, Wired, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and other media. Professor Suri is a popular public lecturer and comments frequently on radio and television news. His writing and teaching have received numerous prizes, including the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas and the Pro Bene Meritis Award for Contributions to the Liberal Arts. Professor Suri hosts a weekly podcast, “This is Democracy.”

For more information about this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

About this event

On November 8, 2022, Austin voters will head to the polls to cast their ballots for the next mayor of the 11th largest and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Facing growing challenges surrounding affordable housing, public safety, land use, and mass transit, the candidates for mayor will face each other in a thoughtful discussion of the most pressing issues facing young people in Austin.

This event is convened by the LBJ Urban Lab and cohosted the LBJ Future Forum

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REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

Candidates

Kirk Watson | Former Mayor and State Senator

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For three decades, Kirk Watson has been immersed in public policy, spanning local and state government in Texas. He’s led on a wide range of issues including education, health care, transportation, and government transparency.

Elected mayor of Austin at 40-years-old, Kirk helped Austin navigate its first tech boom, driving initiatives that accommodated an influx of people and businesses in ways that addressed affordability, the economy, and things people love about Austin. He did it by bringing different political sides together — leveraging the community’s creativity, commitment, and compassion to advance transformative downtown, environmental, transportation, and public safety initiatives.

Kirk was elected state Senator representing the Austin area in 2006. He served until 2020 when he left to become the Founding Dean of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston.

Kirk led the effort to create the Dell Medical School at UT Austin. His successful “10 Goals in 10 Years” initiative also led to the construction of a brand new 21st-century safety net and teaching hospital, built entirely without taxpayer funding. He also led a bipartisan legislative effort both to fund a new Austin State Hospital and to thoroughly redesign the approach to mental health services in Austin and across Texas.

Celia Israel | Texas State Representative (HD-50)

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Celia Israel is a Texas State Representative, community organizer, and openly gay Latina. The daughter of working-class parents, she knows firsthand how Austin’s affordability crisis affects our families, workers, teachers, students and all who want to make this city home. Celia has a plan to address our city’s housing shortage and will also fight to protect women’s reproductive rights and invest in a transit system to serve our city and bring our communities together.

Originally from El Paso, Rep. Israel moved to Austin in the summer of 1982 to attend the University of Texas. The City of Austin took her in with open arms and an energy and a community that has inspired her decades of public service. Rep. Israel first organized to elect and then served in the Ann Richards administration, where she learned how to lead with heart and a good sense of humor.

Rep. Israel has served our community on numerous nonprofit boards centered on issues of equity and has served the City of Austin on the Environmental Board, the Police Monitor Board, the 2011 Bond Advisory Commission, and the Robert Mueller Advisory Commission. During her time in the legislature representing House District 50 in Northern Travis County, Rep. Israel has been a known champion for voting rights, transportation safety, and our shared progressive values. Rep. Israel will be the first Latina to serve as mayor of any major US city and Austin’s first openly LGBTQ mayor.

Anthony Bradshaw | Security Guard

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Anthony Bradshaw was born on October 28, 1959 and has lived in Austin since 1973. He attended and graduated from McCallum High School, here in Austin, TX. Following his time at McCallum High School, he also attended Austin Community College for a short period. Soon after, he stepped on to the gridiron and played Semi Pro football locally for the Austin Assassins.

In 1989, Anthony began PCE, or prestige commercial enterprises; a carpet cleaning company. Also around that time, he began a church. Eternal Power Ministries which later, in 2018, changed its name to Newday Church. At the beginning of 2019, Anthony went on to start another business, Bradshaw Security, which currently serves Austin and all the surrounding areas.

Jennifer Virden | Real Estate Broker

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"In 1991, I graduated from UT-Austin with a BBA in Finance. Shortly thereafter, I went to work with Dell. In 1993, I had my first child and left Dell. As a working mom, my business was certified by the City of Austin as a Woman-Owned Business, and for 12 years, I managed over 20 single-family homes in the heart of East Austin, which were part of a City of Austin low-income housing development’s lease-to-own program.

In the early 2000’s, I started my current real estate and construction business. That was back when you could still submit a hand-drawn sketch and walk out the same day with a remodeling permit. I’ve come a long way from there. My business has grown over the years and I love what I do. Each client is a VIP to me, and my design/build projects are works of art for me. I’m a stickler for details and perfection.

During my life in Austin, I have been a child, a college-student, a working mom, a business owner, a builder, and a community advocate. Those experiences, combined with my detail and solution-oriented mindset, give me the leadership skills needed to be your next Mayor. If you put your trust in me to lead, build consensus, and get things done, I promise I will do what is best for our city. My mantra is: 'I want to make Austin an even better place than I found it.'"

Phil Brual | Government Major at UT

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Phil Brual was raised and educated in South Austin at James Bowie High School. He has two wonderful mothers and an amazing father who is an immigrant from the Philippines, all of whom are deaf and taught him ASL. Phil is a renter here in Austin, sharing a two-bathroom duplex with four roommates. He works three part-time jobs, as well as a legislative internship at the Texas State Capitol. Additionally, Phil is studying Government and History at UT Austin. He has researched legislation, constitution creation, and party demographics on both local and national levels. Many of these issues often compare to what we see in Austin today, both in legal affairs and demographic changes. Phil's work at the Texas Capitol allows him to keep an eye on the state and city-wide issues across multiple departments. Combined with his City Council attendance, Phil stays informed of the whirlwind of changes that Austin faces. Through his experiences, he have quickly and efficiently built his knowledge and understanding of politics, allowing him to skillfully tackle any conflicts that arise.
 

Gary Spellman| Cosmetics Executive

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Gary Spellman is the co-founder of Ultimate Face Cosmetics, a vegan, gluten-free, and cruelty-free global beauty brand based in Austin, Texas. Gary built the brand with his wife, Laurie Spellman, on more than 25 years of experience in the professional beauty industry, including roles in sales, management, training, distribution, manufacturing, and salon coordination. Ultimate Face Cosmetics reflects Gary’s guiding principles that center around environmental consciousness and giving back to the community.

Born and raised in Massachusetts and the second oldest of seven children, Gary developed a strong work ethic early in childhood growing up poor and occasionally experiencing homelessness. His entrepreneurial spirit enabled him to work numerous jobs to scrape by and pay the bills over the years. While working as a doorman at a top nightclub in Newport, Rhode Island, he met longtime friend John Paul DeJoria, founder of the Paul Mitchell line of hair products and The Patron Spirits Company, at what would be a pivotal change in his personal and professional trajectory.

Gary relocated to Austin in 1997 and continues to work on various projects and charitable endeavors. He founded the annual Peace, Love, and Happiness Ride with DeJoria, which has raised over a million dollars for the 100 Club of Central Texas, benefiting orphans and widows of fallen peace officers. He also serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for Paul Mitchell and Indian Motorcycles.

Moderators

Ryan Autullo | Austin American-Statesman

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Samantha Greyson | The Daily Texan

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Ricardo Rendon | Univisión 62 Austin

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On Wednesday, October 26, the Asia Policy Program is hosting Joseph Torigian, Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, to discuss his latest release, Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao. This talk will be moderated by Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, director of the Asia Policy Program and Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, at Robert L. Patton Hall, RLP 1.302B at 12:15 PM. The Asia Policy Program is a joint effort of the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. 

The political successions in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao, respectively, are often explained as triumphs of inner party democracy, leading to a victory of “reformers” over “conservatives” or “radicals.” In traditional thinking, Leninist institutions provide competitors a mechanism for debating policy and making promises, stipulate rules for leadership selection, and prevent the military and secret police from playing a coercive role. Here, Joseph Torigian argues that the post-cult of personality power struggles in history’s two greatest Leninist regimes were instead shaped by the politics of personal prestige, historical antagonisms, backhanded political maneuvering, and violence. Mining newly discovered material from Russia and China, Torigian challenges the established historiography and suggests a new way of thinking about the nature of power in authoritarian regimes.

BIOGRAPHY

Joseph Torigian is an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington. Previously, he was a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton-Harvard’s China and the World Program, a Postdoctoral (and Predoctoral) Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), a Predoctoral Fellow at George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, an IREX scholar affiliated with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. His new book, “Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao” was recently released with Yale University Press and he has a forthcoming biography on Xi Jinping’s father with Stanford University Press.

On Tuesday, October 25, the Clements Center for National Security and the Department of Government will host Charles Zug, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, for a book talk on his upcoming release Demagogues in American Politics. Join us at 12:15 pm in RLP 1.302B, Patton Hall.

Charles Zug is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, where he teaches undergraduate courses on American institutions, APD, and American political thought. Zug's first book, Demagogues in American Politics (Oxford University Press), is scheduled to appear in print September 2022. Charles has authored peer-reviewed articles in multiple journals, including the Journal of Law and Courts and American Political Thought. He has also written widely for the popular press. Zug received his PhD in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. The Government Department at UT Austin has nominated his dissertation for the George C. Edwards III, E.E. Schattschneider, and Walter Dean Burnham Dissertation Awards.

For more information about this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that real GDP growth would average less than two percent annually over the long-term, a decline in growth driven by an aging population and lagging productivity. Policymakers must shift their attention to some pre-existing structural imbalances that threaten chronically slow long-term economic growth. Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute, Robert Bixby, Executive Director of The Concord Coalition and James K. Galbraith, the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the LBJ School come together to look at the big challenges ahead and offer solutions. Professor Don Kettl will moderate.

Speakers

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Will Marshall is president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a catalyst for political change and policy innovation with offices in Washington, D.C. and Brussels. Its mission is to craft new ideas for advancing the enduring values of liberal democracy.

Founded in 1989, PPI started as the intellectual birthplace of the New Democrat and “Third Way” movements, earning a reputation as President Bill Clinton’s “idea mill.” Many of its groundbreaking policy innovations have been translated into U.S. policy and law, and have influenced center-left political leaders around the world.

Today, PPIs work centers on fortifying the vital liberal center against the global rise of illiberal populism and nationalism. Its vision for clean and equitable growth aims at spreading digital innovation to people and places left behind; lifting wages to reduce class and racial disparities; grooming the world’s most talented and entrepreneurial workers; modernizing outdated immigration laws; and, defending free societies in a dangerous world.

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Robert L. Bixby is executive director of The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that encourages fiscal responsibility in Washington and helps educate the public about the federal budget and the need to protect our children and future generations from excessive government debt.

Bixby joined Concord in 1992 and served in several positions, including policy director and national field director, before being named executive director in 1999. He has served as a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force (the Domenici-Rivlin commission), which produced a model plan for comprehensive fiscal reform.

He frequently speaks around the country on the nation’s fiscal challenges and possible bipartisan solutions, including greater government efficiency, tax reform and improvements in the entitlement program. He has testified at congressional hearings and been interviewed by news organizations around the country. Bixby has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN and Fox News.

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James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a professorship in Government at The University of Texas at Austin. He was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress in the early 1980s, and before that, an economist for the House Banking Committee. He chaired the board of Economists for Peace and Security from 1996 to 2016 and directs The University of Texas Inequality Project. He is a managing editor of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

From 1993 to 1997 Galbraith served as chief technical adviser for Macroeconomic Reform to the State Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China. In 2010, he was elected to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. In 2014 he was co-winner of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economics. In 2020 he received the Veblen-Commons Award of the Association for Evolutionary Economics. He holds degrees from Harvard University (AB, magna cum laude), in economics from Yale University (M.A., M.Phil, Ph.D.), and academic honors from universities in Ecuador, France and the Russian Federation. He is a Marshall Scholar; a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Texas Philosophical Society; and a member of the Free Economic Society, an organization of economists in Russia, chartered by Catherine the Great in 1765.

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Donald Kettl specializes in public management and public policy. He previously served as dean in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Volcker Alliance, the Brookings Institution and the Partnership for Public Service. He has authored or edited numerous books, including The Divided States of America: Why Federalism Doesn't Work (2020); Can Governments Earn Our Trust? (2017); Little Bites of Big Data for Public Policy (2017); The Politics of the Administrative Process (7th edition, 2017); Escaping Jurassic Government: Restoring America's Lost Commitment to Competence (2016); System Under Stress: The Challenge to 21st Century American Democracy Homeland Security and American Politics (2014); The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them (2008); and The Global Public Management Revolution (2005).

He has received three lifetime achievement awards: the American Political Science Association's John Gaus Award, the Warner W. Stockberger Achievement Award of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources, and the Donald C. Stone Award of the American Society for Public Administration.