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The Bob Graham Center for Public Service provides a wide variety of programs for students and the larger public on topics related to public service, public leadership and civic engagement.

Politicizing Religion and the Politics of Religion

Politicizing religion in the U.S. has resulted in the rise of religious intolerance and discrimination against religious minorities and politicians have made religion into an instrument by which to mobilize voters. The Center for Global Islamic Studies and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service hosted a panel discussion at 6 p.m. on March 21 in

Bias on the Bench

Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporters Emily Le Coz and Josh Salman discussed the award-winning investigative series, "Bias on the bench," which reveals Florida’s broken judicial sentencing system on April 3 at 6 p.m. in the Pugh Hall Ocora. Using an unprecedented analysis of more than 80 million records in two statewide databases, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune revealed apparent bias in Florida’s sentencing

Shorstein Lecture: How American Jews Fell in Love with the secular state

American Jews remain the most pro-Democratic white ethnic group in the United States, a puzzling phenomenon because they exhibit social traits usually associated with conservative and Republican loyalties. In trying to account for this pattern, Kenneth D. Wald, distinguished professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida, explored how concerns about the relationship

Rethinking Modern Counterterrorism

John J. Mulligan, the deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, spoke at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, in the Pugh Hall Ocora on the current terrorist threat environment, both global and national, reviewing recent history and examining the evolving nature of terrorist threats. Mulligan describes current challenges facing the U.S. counterterrorism mission and the manner in

How to Improve U.S. Presidential Elections

Nobel Laureate Erick Maskin, a professor at Harvard University, discussed his research on applying economic theory to the study of election systems in different Western countries at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 28, in the Reitz Union Auditorium. Professor Maskin received the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (with L. Hurwicz and R. Myerson) for laying the

Rosemary Barkett and Joseph Hatchett

The University of Florida Levin College of Law Center for Governmental Responsibility, the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and the George A. Smathers Libraries hosted a discussion with two Florida judicial system luminaries: the Honorable Rosemary Barkett (JD 70) and the Honorable Joseph Hatchett (Howard University School of Law, LLB 59). The distinguished guests,

GRU/GREC

The Gainesville Sun, WUFT and the Bob Graham Center hosted a public program at 6 p.m. on June 13 in Pugh Hall's MacKay Auditorium that examined the ongoing negotiation between Gainesville Regional Utilities and the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center. The panel featured Ed Bielarski, general manager of Gainesville Regional Utilities; Darin Cook, chair of the Utilities Advisory Board

Future-Focused: Florida’s State Museum Turns 100

Explore More – a forum for scientists and scholars featured in UF’s Explore research magazine – presented a conversation with Florida Museum of Natural History Director Douglas S. Jones, Ph.D., about the museum's century of extraordinary success as both the state museum and UF’s natural history museum. The museum is widely ranked among the top three university-associated natural history museums in the nation.

Paradise Remembered: The History of Paradise Park

Local author Cynthia Wilson-Graham, co-author of the book Remembering Paradise Park, Tourism and Segregation with Lu Vickers, recounted the history of Paradise Park on Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. in the Pugh Hall Ocora. The program was cosponsored by the Bob Graham Center, the UF Dial Center and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. Wilson-Graham, an educator