Speaking of America: A Conversation with Knowledge Experts (virtual)
Join Lifetime Learning for the Collection A Capstone Conversation featuring Mary Kate Cary, instructor of Speaking of America and Assistant Vice President, Office of the President, University of Virginia. Mary Kate will be joined by scholars and experts for a dynamic discussion of the historic speeches you explored in Collection A, including notables like Patrick Henry, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King, Jr., and more. Together, they will dive into the context, craftsmanship, and lasting impact of these powerful speeches and answer your questions.
Mary Kate Cary, Assistant Vice President, Office of the President, University of Virginia
Previously, Mary Kate Cary served as a lecturer in the Politics Department at UVA, teaching Political Speechwriting, "Democracy Out Loud," and "Election 2024" alongside a professor with opposing views. She is director of Think Again UVA, an initiative that promotes freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, critical thinking, and intellectual humility through student-facing programming, and serves as chair of UVA’s Fund for Free Expression and Viewpoint Diversity.
Ms. Cary is a former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush and served as spokesman for the U.S. Attorney General William Barr in 1992. She is the Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary "41ON41", in which 41 extraordinary people tell their best stories about former President Bush 41. For over two decades, she wrote speeches for a variety of national political and business leaders.
Michael Lee, Director of Civility Initiative, and Professor of Communications, College of Charleston
Michael J. Lee is the director of the Civility Initiative and a professor of communication at the College of Charleston. The Civility Initiative promotes healthy disagreement and dialogue across differences through workshops, trainings, speakers, debates, and When We Disagree, a podcast about memorable disagreements in our lives. His research focuses on political identity in American politics. His work has earned over a dozen awards including five national book awards for his first book, Creating Conservatism: Postwar Words that Made an American Movement. His latest book is We Are Not One People: Separatism and Secession in American Politics Since 1776.
Sid Milkis, the White Burkett Miller Professor of Governance and Foreign Affairs, Department of Politics, and Interim Director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Sidney M. Milkis is the White Burkett Miller Professor in the Department of Politics and Interim Director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy. He was awarded the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship for 2018-2020, the highest teaching award at the University of Virginia, which recognizes an eminent scholar for outstanding undergraduate teaching. In 2016-2017, he was named the John G. Winant Visiting Professor of American Government at Oxford University. He has a B.A. from Muhlenberg College and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Milkis is author or co-author of numerous books. His most recent book is coauthored with Jacobs, Subverting Democracy: Donald J. Trump and the Perils of Presidentialism (2025).
His articles on American government and political history have appeared in Perspectives on Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Studies in American Political Development, PS: Political Science and Politics, the Journal of Policy History, Antitrust Law Journal, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Journal of Supreme Court History, American Political Thought, Social Science Quarterly, and several highly regarded edited volumes.
Milkis is co-founder and co-director of an all-university initiative, Project on Democracy and Capitalism, which is exploring the complex relationship between self-government and markets. In March 2023, the Project convened a conference, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, titled “Can Democracy and Capitalism be Reconciled?” Through an examination of ideas, history, and policy, this conference explored the philosophical dimensions of the relationship between a free-enterprise system and democracy, probed the historical roots of the relationship, and considered policy proposals to buttress and reimagine democratic capitalism itself. A volume drawn from this conference will be published by Oxford University Press this Fall.
Robert (Rob) Patterson, Associate Professor of Commerce, General Faculty Coordinator of Communications, McIntire School of Commerce
Professor Patterson has experiences in both academic and nonprofit corporation work. He teaches courses in McIntire's Management Communication Program. His professional experiences in academia have included teaching courses in corporate communication, rhetoric, rhetorical theory and criticism, campaigns, small-group problem solving, business and professional communication, and public speaking. Professor Patterson’s professional experiences in the nonprofit sector include nonprofit [501(c)(3)] executive management and leadership and postsecondary accreditation/compliance.
Professor Patterson’s teaching, professional, and scholarly interests include business and professional communication, persuasion, rhetorical and cultural theory, public speaking, great historical speeches, corporate communication, technical communication and writing, the analysis of public and organizational discourse, communication assessment, communication pedagogy, and executive leadership. He is active in professional societies exploring the study of communication knowledge and the application of communication skills, and is a Rural Communication Scholar at the Rural Communication Institute at Tarleton State University (Texas).