Overview
The Office of Public Lectures (OPL), housed within the Graduate School, is the University of Washington’s premier hub for public engagement, dedicated to upholding the UW’s commitment to the free and open exchange of ideas. We transform expertise — scholarly and lived, academic and professional — into high-impact conversations that connect students, faculty, and the broader community, creating opportunities where research and big ideas bring clarity to a complex world.
This mission guides the selection of speakers for all OPL programming, including the Walker-Ames Series, the Jessie & John Danz Lecture Series, the Mary Ann and John D. Mangels Lecture Series, and Signature Speaker programming. The Office of Public Lectures is dedicated to ensuring that speaker selection is conducted consistently, transparently, and without regard to whether the University, the Selection Committee, or any individual reviewer agrees or disagrees with a speaker’s personal, political, religious, or ideological views.
OPL is committed to curating a speaker series that reflects a broad range of academic, political, and social perspectives over time. This commitment does not require that every individual speaker be paired with an ideological counterpart, nor does it require rejecting a speaker because their views are not balanced by a companion event. Viewpoint diversity is assessed across the history, full season and body of programming, not on an event-by-event basis.
As a public university, the University of Washington is committed to the free and open exchange of ideas. Extending an invitation to speak is not an endorsement of a speaker’s views. OPL protects that principle by ensuring that selection decisions are grounded in objective, viewpoint-neutral standards applied consistently to every nomination.
A speaker’s viewpoint — including a controversial, unpopular, or provocative one — is not, by itself, a basis for selection or rejection. Selection decisions are based on the following six committee-facing criteria, applied equally regardless of the speaker’s political affiliation, ideological perspective, or the content of their views
- Mission Fit
- Intellectual Quality
- Relevant Expertise & Subject Matter Expertise
- Interdisciplinary Support (if applicable)
- Public Speaking Ability
- Public Value
Two additional operational and safety considerations — feasibility/logistics and compliance with conduct and safety standards — are reviewed separately by OPL staff as part of an internal process once a speaker has been identified for potential invitation.
The OPL opens the nomination portal at the beginning of November and closes at the end of January. Nominations will only be accepted from members of the UW faculty from all three campuses, as well as emeritus faculty; deans; directors and chairs. OPL does not accept self-nominations. The speaker selections will be made in late February. And the full line-up will be made public at the start of August.