Hess Week kicks off on April 1 when President Michelle J. Anderson helps welcome the 2025 Robert L. Hess Scholar-in Residence Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; co-host of Strict Scrutiny podcast; and MSNBC legal analyst. President Anderson will be joined by Associate Professor of History Phil Napoli, Dean, School of the Humanities and Social Sciences; Douglas NeJaime, Anne Urowsky Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Karen M. Tani, Seaman Family University Professor, Law School and Department of History, University of Pennsylvania; and others. President Anderson and Murray will discuss the significance of Murray’s work as a legal scholar, public intellectual, and advocate. On Thursday, April 3, at 11 a.m., Murray will deliver the 2025 Robert L. Hess Memorial Lecture, “Funhouse Footnote Four: How the Roberts Court Is Remaking the Constitutional Order.” Inspired by Murray’s work, the rest of Hess Week will focus on the role of the courts in our democracy; the use of history by the courts; podcasting as part of our public discourse; issues of reproductive justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, and civil rights and liberties; and imagining our collective future. Among the 26 speakers who will join in conversation with the Brooklyn College community are Deborah Archer (President, ACLU), Alexis McGill Johnson (President and CEO, Planned Parenthood President), Lee Gerlent (Director, ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project), Chase Strangio ( Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, first trans person to argue in front of the Supreme Court), Maria Hinojosa (Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist), and Barbara Smith (2023 Hess Scholar-in-Residence). The public events listed below are hosted by Brooklyn College’s Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities in honor of Professor Murray. All events will be held in the Woody Tanger Auditorium, 150 Brooklyn College Library, unless otherwise noted. TUESDAY, APRIL 1 Abortion and Democracy 2:15–3:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY APRIL 2 History and the Courts 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Dobbs and the Future of Individual Rights 12:30–2 p.m. The Role of the Courts in our Democracy 3:40–5 p.m. THURSDAY, APRIL 3 Funhouse Footnote Four: How the Roberts Court Is Remaking the Constitutional Order The 2025 Robert L. Hess Memorial Lecture 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Podcasting in the Changing Media/Political Landscape 2:15–3:30 p.m. Jefferson-Williams Lounge, 400 Student Center About the Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program The Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program, established by Brooklyn College, is supported by the Robert L. Hess Fund. The program serves as a permanent tribute to the scholarly commitment of Robert L. Hess, exemplified during his tenure as president of Brooklyn College. It represents the ideal of the educated individual—knowledgeable, thoughtful, inquiring, and alive to the shared purposes and concerns lining all intellectual pursuits. More particularly, it evokes the academic virtues embodied in the curriculum at Brooklyn College.
