Liz Cheney Scheduled for 40th Anniversary Mansfield Dialogues at UM

MISSOULA – Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, who served as the top Republican on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, will present the 2023 Mansfield Lecture at the University of Montana.

Cheney was vice chair of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. She will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, in UM’s Dennison Theatre.

Titled “American Democracy and the Rule of Law,” the event will be presented in a fireside-chat format with Marc Racicot, the former Montana governor who now chairs the board of UM’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center.

“Our founders advised that maintaining a healthy democracy demands much – both from leaders and common citizens,” said Deena Mansour, executive director of the Mansfield Center. “Our Mansfield Dialogues are designed to support that full participation required by engaged citizens from all segments of the community.”

Free tickets for the Cheney event will become available to the general public at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, on GrizTix.

Cheney’s appearance is one highlight of the 40th Anniversary Mansfield Dialogues at UM. The dialogues are a public lecture series designed to bring global leaders and innovators together with the Montana community to discuss critical issues to our world.

The dialogues are free and open to the public, though advanced registration is recommended by visiting https://www.umt.edu/mansfield/. Several dialogues are hybrid and can be accessed live via Zoom and Missoula Community Access TV.

The Mansfield Center was founded by an act of Congress in 1983 to honor Mike Mansfield’s bipartisanship, integrity and commitment to American democracy. The center works to honor the legacy of Mansfield by working to strengthen U.S. democracy and bolster national security.

The full slate of fall semester 2023 Mansfield Dialogues are:

• Thursday, Sept. 14, at 7:30 p.m.: “How to Depolarize American Democracy,” Stanford democracy expert Larry Diamond, in person at UM’s University Center Ballroom and via Zoom.
• Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m.: “Lessons from the Edge,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, in person at the UM ALI Auditorium and via Zoom. Her best-selling memoir, “Lessons from the Edge,” details Russia’s war against Ukraine and current U.S. policy.
• Thursday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m.: “American Democracy and the Rule of Law,” Cheney and Racicot, UM Dennison Theatre. Free tickets can be obtained on GrizTix before the event.
• Monday, Oct. 9, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: “Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Korea-U.S. Alliance,” UC Ballroom. This one-day series of discussions celebrating democracy through the lens of economic and regional security is supported by the consulate general of the Republic of Korea in Seattle.
• Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m.: “China’s Global Activities: Growing Threat or Failure?” Josh Kurlantzick, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, together with Bay Fang, president of Radio Free Asia, exclusively on Zoom.
• Mid-November, TBD: “Democratic Resilience: The U.S.-Japan Alliance,” featuring a visiting Japanese expert on critical issues in bolstering global security.
• Thursday, Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m.: “True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America,” featuring environmental historian and author Betsy Gaines Quammen, in-person in UM’s UC Theater. She will discuss how myths of the American West shape our identities, heighten polarizations and fracture our shared understanding of the world.

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Contact: Sarah Ward, communications manager, UM Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, 406-243-6932, sarah.ward@mso.umt.edu.