Kraynak Institute News and Updates

This summer, two Colgate students participated in the International Security and Intelligence (ISI) program through the Cambridge Security Initiative to learn directly from intelligence experts in the field. The inaugural fellows in this new program, Will Keiser ’27 and Sawyer Brown ’25, were sponsored by the Robert P. Kraynak Institute for the Study of Freedom and Western Traditions.

This year’s Constitution Day Debate at Colgate will feature Jonathan Turley, the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of public interest law at George Washington University, and Michael Klarman, the Charles Warren Professor of legal history at Harvard Law School, debating “Is There a Constitutional Crisis? How Would We Know?”

The Center for Freedom and Western Civilization has announced its Summer Research Fellows for 2025. This year’s Fellows were honored at a dinner May 6 at the Colgate Inn with their faculty sponsors and members of the External Advisory Board.

Colgate University’s Center for Freedom and Western Civilization hosted Jonathan Turley on April 22 for a discussion on freedom of speech in the United States. Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of public interest law at George Washington University and legal analyst for Fox News. His book, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage," attempts to define free speech and asks why the nation still struggles to exercise it.

Prof. Kraynak and I share the very sad news that our beloved Center colleague and friend, Prof. Alexander (Sasha) Nakhimovsky, Associate Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, passed away on June 27. Prof. Nakhimovsky led the Forum on Security and Democracy and made a substantial contribution to the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization for many years. We will miss his generosity, engagement, intellectual vivacity, energy, and enduring enthusiasm for conversations about the issues that matter most to us.

Two academic freedom experts, Keith Whittington of Yale Law School and Ulrich Baer of New York University, made their cases for the role and scope of free speech in higher education during Colgate’s 2024 Constitution Day Debate: “‘Snowflakes,’ Truth, and the Future of Academic Freedom” Sept. 12. The annual debate celebrating Constitution Day was sponsored by the Forum on Constitutional Government and the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization. 

Free speech on campus will be the focus of this fall’s 2024 Constitution Day Debate.

The Center for Freedom and Civilization hosted three speakers during the spring 2024 semester, with lectures and discussions focused on the Israel-Gaza war with Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at “The Atlantic”; the Northern Ireland Protocol with Tony Connelly, Europe editor for RTÉ News and Current Affairs; and Maxim D. Shrayer, bilingual author and professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College, read from his new memoir, “Immigrant Baggage” during the event.

On April 22, 2024, the Center celebrated the 2024 recipients of the James Madison Summer Fellowship over a lively dinner at the Colgate Inn.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promoted fascism for decades, most recently harnessing the influence of social media aimed at young Russians, according to Ian Garner, a historian and expert in Russian war propaganda.