Panel Discussion
When: June 12, 6 – 7 pm
Location: Rockefeller Hall at Vassar College, 124 Raymond Ave, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
Tickets: $35 General Admission
Join us for a dynamic panel discussion on the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt’s fight for free expression and how censorship continues to shape our world today. Featuring Blanche Wiesen Cook (Roosevelt biographer), Yana Gorokhovskaia (Freedom House), Lee Rowland (NCAC), Daniel Shank Cruz (PEN America), and Miriam Cohen (Evalyn Clark Professor Emerita of History), this conversation will explore the past and present of intellectual freedom, global censorship trends, and what Roosevelt’s legacy can teach us in this moment.
All ticket proceeds benefit our 2nd Annual Bravery in Literature “Banned Book Awards” Ceremony on October 11th, which honors authors whose books are challenged or banned. Find out more at ervk.org/banned-books.
Moderator
MIRIAM COHEN, VASSAR COLLEGE
Miriam Cohen, Evalyn Clark Professor Emerita of History, taught at Vassar from 1977 to 2021. She received her BA at the University of Rochester and PhD in history from the University of Michigan. Her specialties include the history of American women and twentieth-century American political and social history. The author of two books and numerous articles, she has published widely on the history of women and on the history of social reform in the United States and Europe.
Our Panel
BLANCHE WIESEN COOK
Blanche Wiesen Cook is Distinguished Professor of History and Women’s Studies at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her definitive biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol I The Early Years 1884 – 1933; Vol II The Defining Years 1933- 1938; Vol III The War Years and After 1939 -1962, published by Viking, was called “monumental and inspirational…[a] grand biography” by the New York Times Book Review. Eleanor Roosevelt Volume One, on the NY Times bestseller list for 3 months, received many awards, including the 1992 Biography Prize from the Los Angeles Times, and the Lambda Literary Award. Eleanor Roosevelt Volume II was a New York Times bestseller. ER I, II, III are available in Penguin Paperback and on E-book.
DANIEL SHANK CRUZ
Daniel Shank Cruz (they/multitudes) is the Special Assistant for U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America, coordinating team efforts to fight educational censorship and providing support to a variety of projects. Prior to coming to PEN America, they spent a decade working as an English professor. Multitudes holds a BA from Goshen College, an MFA from Hunter College of the City University of New York, and an MA and PhD from Northern Illinois University. They are the author of a book of literary criticism, Queering Mennonite Literature: Archives, Activism, and the Search for Community (Penn State University Press, 2019), and a hybrid memoir/literary critical text, Ethics for Apocalyptic Times: Theapoetics, Autotheory, and Mennonite Literature (Penn State University Press, 2024). With James Knippen, they are co-author of It Breaks Your Heart: Haiku and Senryu on the 2023 New York Mets (Redheaded Press, 2024).
Yana Gorokhovskaia
Yana Gorokhovskaia is the Research Director for Strategy and Design at Freedom House where she oversees work on the organization’s flagship report, Freedom in the World, and the Transnational Repression portfolio. In addition to reports produced for Freedom House, Yana’s analysis has been published in Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Politico, Journal of Democracy, Post-Soviet Affairs, PS: Political Science and Politics, Democratization, and International Migration. Yana hold a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of British Columbia and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.
lee rowland
Lee Rowland is the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, a non-partisan alliance of more than 50 national non-profits, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups dedicated to fighting censorship and defending freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression. Lee is a lifelong free expression advocate with extensive experience as a litigator, lobbyist, and public speaker. Over the past two decades, she has served as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center for Justice, and as Policy Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She has served as lead counsel in First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, the First Amendment rights of community advocates, government regulation of digital speech, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. Lee has also taught at NYU School of Law and the Hunter College Human Rights Program.
If you’re a Vassar student with a valid student ID, click this link to register for free: ervk.org/vassar-student-registration
Tickets: June 12 Panel Discussion
Location
Rockefeller Hall at Vassar College
124 Raymond Ave
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
For parking information, click the link below and click the “parking” tab on the left side: Parking Map
