April 20: Featured Speaker in Minnesota State Mankato's Annual Kessel Lecture to Address ‘Moral Leadership and Integrity in a Period of Ethical Decline’

Monday, April 20, 2026
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Ostrander Auditorium

Mankato, Minn. – Eric Schwartz, professor and chair of global policy in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, is the guest speaker in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s annual Kessel Memorial Lecture on Monday, April 20 at 7 p.m. in Ostrander Auditorium, located in the University’s Centennial Student Union.

Schwartz’s lecture, titled “Moral Leadership and Integrity in a Period of Ethical Decline,” is free and open to the public. After the lecture, there will be time for questions and answers, followed by a reception with light refreshments just outside Ostrander Auditorium. Parking in campus gold spaces is free after 6:30 p.m. Additional parking information is available at https://www.mnsu.edu/visit/campus-visitor-parking/.

According to his University of Minnesota online biography, Schwartz’s areas of expertise are humanitarianism, international human rights, the United Nations, refugees and forced migration, international relations, U.S. foreign policy and national security. Prior to his 2011 arrival at the Humphrey School, Schwartz served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, beginning in 2009.

For more information, please contact Associate Professor of Political Science Fred Slocum, associate chair for the Department of Economics, Ethnic Studies & Government at Minnesota State Mankato, by email at frederick.slocum@mnsu.edu.

The Kessel Annual Lectureship Series within Minnesota State Mankato’s Political Science Program is the primary sponsor of the lecture. MSU’s Department of Economics, Ethnic Studies and Government is also a sponsor.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 15,721 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities.