The 2011-12 American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series will conclude at Harding University Thursday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Benson Auditorium with Condoleezza Rice. Her topic of discussion is “Looking Back and Moving Forward to a Stronger America.”

Dr. Condoleezza Rice is a Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. She is also a professor of political economy in the Graduate School of Business and professor of political science at Stanford University, where she served as provost from 1993 to 1999. She became the 66th secretary of state of the United States in January 2005 after serving as the president’s national security advisor for four years. She is the author of No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington. Rice has served on boards of directors for a variety of entities including the Chevron, Charles Schwab and Transamerica corporations, and the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Tickets are free for students, faculty and staff and $15 to the general public. They will be available online beginning March 12, 2012. To purchase tickets, visit www.hardingtickets.com. The lecture series is co-sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation.