Professor Helen Knowles-Gardner, research director at the Institute for Free Speech, will speak Friday, June 26, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Robert H. Jackson Center.

Her presentation will address what it means to be patriotic as part of the center’s 25 Years of Asking Questions lecture series.

From flag-waving to flag-burning, Americans have long debated whether patriotism requires obedience or allows for dissent. Inspired by West Virginia v. Barnette, the June 26 program explores competing visions of patriotism and the role of free expression in a democratic society. In his opinion, Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson argued that no government can prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of opinion, placing liberty at the center of American identity.

Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union is sponsoring the speaker series.

Knowles-Gardner is research director at the Institute for Free Speech, a scholar of American law and politics, and managing editor of the Supreme Court Historical Society’s Journal of Supreme Court History. A former political science professor for nearly two decades, she has written extensively on the First Amendment and freedom of expression.

She is the co-author and editor of multiple books on free speech, including Judging Free Speech: First Amendment Jurisprudence of U.S. Supreme Court Justices and Free Speech Theory: Understanding the Controversies. Her broader scholarship includes work on Supreme Court jurisprudence, including a book on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s approach to liberty. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University and a B.A. in American Studies from Liverpool Hope University.