DeKALB – The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will host its fifth annual Rebuilding Democracy Lecture Series. This year’s guest speaker will be Julian Castro, former U.S. presidential candidate and former U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Castro began his political career in 2001, when he was elected to the San Antonio City Council and then was elected as San Antonio’s mayor in 2009. In 2012, he was the first Latino to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Castro served as the U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development during Barack Obama’s presidency from 2014 to 2017. In 2020, Castro ran as a Democratic presidential candidate. Currently, Castro is on the board of directors for the LBJ Foundation, is a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and is CEO of the Latino Community Foundation. To read more about him, visit the Latino Community Foundation website.

The first lecture will occur from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday via Zoom. Castro and Robert Brinkmann, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will discuss a variety of political topics, including democracy’s current state in America and upcoming presidential election.

Brinkmann said students should attend the Rebuilding Democracy lectures because, especially within the last few election cycles, the questions about American democracy and political polarization have become more prevalent.

“We’ve become such a polarized country, and it’s important that we try to recognize that we’re all Americans and that we have common goals and values,” Brinkmann said.

The lecture series began in 2020 when Brinkmann started at= NIU. Brinkmann brought in ideas from Hofstra University in New York.

Conversations at the lectures include politicians and public servants from both sides of the political spectrum.

“We really do try to bring in a balanced group of people,” Brinkmann said.

One of the challenges with the lecture series is attendance, Brinkmann said. During the pandemic, the series was hosted online, but returning in-person saw a decrease in student attendance.

“We moved it back online and the attendance has picked back up. It provides greater accessibility to the community because they don’t have to drive in. They can click in from home without having to travel,” Brinkmann said.

If students want to attend the lecture series, they can register in advance through the NIU events calendar.