Elon University is bringing more engaging speakers to campus in Spring 2026 as part of the Elon University Speaker Series.
The 2025-26 Elon University Speaker Series continues in the new year with a lineup of engaging events.
The Fall 2025 semester included Alejandra Campoverdi delivering the Common Reading Lecture, Katie Ledecky sitting down for a discussion for Fall Convocation and Retired Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr. delivering the Carol Ann Walker International Lectureship. Kwame Anthony Appiah opened the Spring 2026 speaker lineup with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Address.
Tickets are free with an Elon ID or $15 at ElonTickets.com.
Upcoming Speakers
The Baird Lecture
Zeynep Tufekci
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 7 p.m.
McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts
Zeynep Tufekci is an internationally renowned techno-sociologist whose work analyzes the intersections of science, technology, politics and society. She is known for asking hard questions about artificial intelligence, privacy and surveillance, social movements, and public health, and she answers them in ways that defy disciplinary boundaries.
Tufekci is a New York Times opinion columnist and the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Her work on the social and moral implications of machine learning, big data and algorithmic decision-making argues that the true threat of artificial intelligence is rooted in privacy and human rights violations. She links the AI-powered erosion of privacy in processes such as facial recognition to the early stages of authoritarianism.
A 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary, Tufekci is the author of “Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest,” which examines the power of using social media to mobilize large numbers of people in political protest and why many modern social movements lack the direction to foster real change once the protest is over.
Prior to joining The New York Times, Tufekci spent years as a contributing opinion writer at several of the nation’s most acclaimed news publications. She was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a fellow at the Princeton University Center for Information Technology and the inaugural director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University.
James P. Elder Lecture
Frank Bruni
Thursday, April 9, 2026, 6:30 p.m.
Whitley Auditorium
Frank Bruni is a journalist and bestselling author who served at The New York Times for more than 25 years as a White House correspondent, the Rome bureau chief, the paper’s chief restaurant critic and op-ed columnist. He is now a contributing opinion writer and maintains a weekly newsletter reflecting on politics and life.
Bruni is the author of five New York Times bestsellers including “The Age of Grievance,” a dive into why Americans are so angry. He makes the case that Americans conflate legitimate causes and petty complaints, creating a condition of constant self-victimization. People obsess over how they’ve been wronged and who to blame, which poses a threat to American democracy, rather than choosing to focus on civil, productive dialogue and constructive action.
“The Beauty of Dusk” is a memoir detailing Bruni’s adjustment to the sudden loss of vision in one eye and the acceptance of the reality that the same fate could befall the other at any moment. It earned rave reviews from people and publications including Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, People magazine, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The first openly gay op-ed columnist at the Times, Bruni is a recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Randy Shilts Award for his career-long contributions to the LGBTQ community and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Newspaper Columnist. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing, he is the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.