New Date Coming Soon: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Preet Bharara in Conversation

11/20/2023

New date event

The Monday, November 20 event with Nancy Pelosi in Conversation with Preet Bharara event is being rescheduled to a future date in 2024.

Join Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and author, podcaster, and former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara for a conversation about governance and safeguarding American democracy in a free, public program in The Cooper Union’s Great Hall. The event is featured as Cooper’s 2023 John Jay Iselin Memorial Lecture and will be broadcast on Bharara’s national podcast, “Stay Tuned with Preet.”  

Please note this free event is first-come-first-served, and an RSVP does not guarantee admission.

Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 36 years. She served as the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives, having made history in 2007 when she was elected the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House. Pelosi made history again in January 2019 when she regained her position second-in-line to the presidency – the first person to do so in more than six decades. Speaker Pelosi is the chief architect of generation-defining legislation under two Democratic administrations, including the Affordable Care Act and the American Rescue Plan. She has led House Democrats for 20 years and previously served as House Democratic Whip. In 2013, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the American women’s rights movement. 

Preet Bharara served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. Bharara oversaw the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases and supervised an office of more than 200 assistant U.S. attorneys, who handled cases involving terrorism, financial and healthcare fraud, public corruption, and more. In 2017, Bharara joined the NYU School of Law faculty as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence. He is the co-founder of CAFE Studios and host of the award-winning "Stay Tuned with Preet," a podcast focused on issues of justice and fairness.  

The John Jay Iselin Memorial Lecture honors the 10th President of The Cooper Union, who served from 1987 to 2000. As general manager and president of Channel 13, Jay Iselin was largely responsible for making public television a vital force in broadcast journalism, originating such programs as Nature and The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Past Iselin lecturers have included White House photographer Pete Souza, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ed Yong, and political activist and law professor Zephyr Teachout. 

More Events & Exhibitions

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.