The 2023 Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture: Jamie Raskin

2023 Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture
featuring

Congressman Jamie Raskin
Saturday, May 27, 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center 

Please note an important speaker change: Ari Melber, our 2023 Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture speaker, will not be able to attend the event on May 27, but will deliver a brief video message. 

We are very excited to welcome back, Congressman Jamie Raskin as the 2023 lecturer!

Congressman Raskin will speak to, "Our Beleaguered Social Contract: Democracy, Gun Violence and the Perils of Insurrectionism."

Congressman Jamie Raskin proudly represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes most of Montgomery County and a small part of Prince George's County. Congressman Raskin was sworn into his fourth Term at the start of the 118th Congress on January 6, 2023.

Rep. Raskin was chosen by the Democratic Caucus to be the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the 118^th Congress. This is his fourth term serving on the Oversight Committee.

Previously Rep. Raskin served three terms on the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on House Administration. He served two terms on the Rules Committee and the Coronavirus Select Subcommittee. During the 117th Congress he served as Chair of the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Chair of the Rules Subcommittee on Expedited Procedure. Rep. Raskin was the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump and served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Prior to his time in Congress, Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland, where he also served as the Senate Majority Whip. He earned a reputation for building coalitions in Annapolis to deliver a series of landmark legislative accomplishments, including marriage equality, abolition of the death penalty, passage of the first Benefit Corporation law in America and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. He was also a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including the Washington Post best-seller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People, the highly-acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases For and About America’s Students, and the New York Times #1 best-seller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy.

Congressman Raskin is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and is a former editor of the Harvard Law Review.

If you have already reserved a ticket for the lecture, you do not need to do anything further.

Tickets are now sold out.

This lecture will be recorded and available on the OLLI at BCC YouTube channel in early June.

About Mona Sherman

The annual Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture was established to honor the memory of the late Mona Sherman, a dynamic businesswoman and volunteer leader who played a transformative role in the growth and expansion of OLLI at BCC. The lecture series, established through the generosity of her family and friends, honors both her love of the Berkshires community and of lifelong learning.

For over a decade, the Mona Sherman Memorial Lecture series has featured extraordinary nationally known writers and commentators: past speakers have included Congressman Jamie Raskin, Cokie Roberts, Jim Acosta, Mika Brzezinski, Joe Klein, Katy Tur and others. The lectures have always been free and open to the public.

OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College, provides diverse educational, social, and volunteer opportunities a year designed especially by and for people fifty years old and better. OLLI’s 1,450+ members organize courses, lectures, trips and special events online, throughout the Berkshires and beyond.  For more information visit www.berkshireolli.org.

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We are grateful to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center for being our co-presenter, to Berkshire Gas for being our lead sponsor, and to the many friends and family of Mona Sherman for their continuing support.