Wade Clark Roof (1939-2019) was J. F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society and founding Director of the Walter H. Capps Center at UCSB. Roof was a renown sociologist of religion who identified and interpreted significant changes in American religious life. He was also passionate about human rights and civic engagement. Roof organized the first five lectures in this series, beginning with Lynn Hunt's lecture on "Inventing Human Rights: A History" in 2007. Learn more about Roof here.

Dodging the Sisters: Why Queer Nuns Keep Going Viral
Melissa M. Wilcox, Professor of Religious Studies, UC Riverside
October 15, 2024

Challenging Hate: How to Stop Anti-AAPI Violence and Bias
Manjusha Kulkarni, Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate, Executive Director of AAPI Equity Alliance
April 26, 2023

Free Speech on Campus
Howard Gillman, Chancellor of UC Irvine
May 30, 2018

With Justice for All in a Changing America
Morris Dees, Co-Founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
October 21, 2015

Human Trafficking: Ending the Myths, Confronting the Realities
Martina Vandenberg, President of the Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center
November 3, 2013

Damned Nation: Ending the Global War against Women and Children
Samantha Nutt, Founder and Executive Director of War Child
January 17, 2012

Speak Truth to Power
Kerry Kennedy, Founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights
November 5, 2009

Inventing Human Rights: A History
Lynn Hunt, Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History, UCLA
November 18, 2007