Howard R. Marsh Lecture

The FBI has classified environmentalists and animal rights advocates as the "number one domestic terrorism threat." despite the fact that these social movements have never harmed a human being - instead, these protesters have harmed corporate profits. In response, corporations have successfully lobbied for new state and federal laws that reclassify non-violent civil disobedience as "terrorism," and recent legislation even criminalizes journalists and whistle blowers who expose environmental pollution or animal cruelty.

Investigative journalist Will Potter will discuss his own experiences being threatened by the FBI, what he has uncovered about the corporate campaign to criminalize dissent, and how these same tactics are now being used against Black Lives Matter and the protests against Donald Trump.

Will Potter is an award-winning author and internationally-recognized civil liberties advocate. He is best known for his work challenging government repression and the labeling of protest as "terrorism." Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald described him as "the most knowledgeable journalist in the country on these issues." After being awarded the prestigious Knight Wallace Fellowship in Law Reporting, Will was appointed the Marsh Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan, where he teaches courses on investigative journalism, social movements, and whistleblowing.

PBS said "Will Potter goes where no other investigative journalist has gone," and that applies to both his research and his advocacy of civil liberties. He was the first journalist to be selected as a TED Senior Fellow, and his TED talks have now been viewed nearly 4 million times. He has lectured at more than 200 universities and forums around the world, including Harvard Law School, Yale University, and the House of Democracy and Human Rights in Berlin.