School of Civic Leadership at UT Austin

SCL Academics

PPE Minor

The Austin Symposium

Society of Fellows Undergraduate Symposium on “Liberty and its Critics”

August 25-26, 2023 at Camp Lucy

“Human liberty,” Tocqueville wrote, is “the source of all moral greatness.” When we think, speak, and act “without constraints, under the sole government of God and the laws,” we cultivate our humanity and discover what it truly means, and what it truly takes, to be happy.

Summer Honors Symposium on “What is Friendship?”

August 10-12, 2024 at Omni Barton Creek Resort

Fellows spent three leisurely days discussing readings on friendship as understood in three distinct intellectual traditions—classic, Christian, and modern.

Dan Shoag

The Austin Symposium 2023

Case Western Reserve University

Edmund Phelps

The Austin Symposium 2023

Nobel laureate, Columbia University

Cass Sunstein

The Austin Symposium 2023

Harvard Law School

Ed Glaser

The Austin Symposium 2023

Harvard University

Deirdre McCloskey

The Austin Symposium 2023

University of Illinois at Chicago 

Ryan Decker

The Austin Symposium 2023

Federal Reserve

Arthur Brooks on “The Art + Science of Happiness”

Arthur C. Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership, happiness, and social entrepreneurship.

Casey Mulligan

Casey B. Mulligan is a Professor in Economics and the College at the University of Chicago, received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1993. Previously, he has also served as Chief Economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as a visiting professor teaching public economics at Harvard University, Clemson University, and the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.

Tim Carney

Timothy P. Carney is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on civil society, family, localism, religion in America, economic competition, and electoral politics. He is concurrently a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner.

Christine Emba

Newly installed at the Atlantic, Christine Emba was a former opinion columnist and member of the Washington Post Editorial Board. Before coming to The Post in 2015, Christine was the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at the New Criterion and a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, focusing on technology and innovation. She grew up in Virginia and holds an A.B. in public and international affairs from Princeton University. 

Melissa Kearney

Melissa S. Kearney is the Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group; a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings; a scholar affiliate and member of the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO); and a scholar affiliate of the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). 

Samuel Gregg

Samuel Gregg is the Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research, and Contributing Editor at Law & Liberty.

Jeff Rosen

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for The New Yorker.

Jonathan Haidt & Jonathan Rauch

Jonathan Haidt is a professor at NYU and is the author The Coddling of the American Mind, The Happiness Hypothesis, and The Righteous Mind, among many other books and articles. He’s a leading researcher on the psychology behind people’s moral views and the problem of political polarization. He’s also a co-founder of Heterodox Academy and a prominent advocate for the value of having a diversity of views on university campuses.

Jonathan Rauch is a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. A prolific writer, his books include Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought and The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Like Haidt, he’s a great champion of free speech and civil discourse.

This event is cosponsored with the Athaneaum and the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center.

Arthur Brooks on “The Pursuit of Happiness in an Unhappy World”

Arthur C. Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership, happiness, and social entrepreneurship.