Beecroft Lecture 2026
Professor Jennifer Lackey
Wayne & Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Law (courtesy), & Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program
Northwestern University
Thursday, January 29, 2026
5:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Thomas & Mack Moot Court Facility
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Register Now!
Description
Marks your calendars for Thursday, January 29, 2026, as the annual Beecroft Lecture welcomes Jennifer Lackey to present her talk, "Epistemic Reparations and the Right be Known in our Criminal Legal System."
When victims of gross human rights violations and systemic injustice are also victims of false or partial narratives, reparations must include epistemic reparations. In such cases, people have a right to be known, to be witnessed, and to participate in the truth telling of what occurred.
Presenter
Jennifer Lackey is the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law (courtesy) at Northwestern University, Founding Director of the Northwestern Prison Education Program, and Senior Research Associate at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg. Lackey’s research is in social epistemology with a focus on epistemological issues within the American criminal legal system. She is the author of over 60 articles and four books, including her recent Criminal Testimonial Injustice, which won the 2024 North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award. She is also the editor or co-editor of six volumes, Editor-in-Chief of Episteme and Philosophical Studies, and Subject Editor for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Lackey was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2025, is the winner of the 2024
Humanitas Award, 2023 Horace Mann Medal, and the Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution. She was elected President of the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division from 2021–2022, was named the 2025 holder of the Spinoza Chair at the University of Amsterdam and has received grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About the Beecroft Lecture Series
The Beecroft Lecture Series was established in honor of the late Chris Beecroft Jr., a 1971 UNLV graduate and commissioner of Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Clark County District Court. Following Beecroft’s passing in December 2016, the ADR section of the State Bar of Nevada worked quickly to launch the Chris Beecroft Jr. Fund, which helps to sponsor the lecture series at the Saltman Center.
Past Beecroft Lectures include:
2025: Top Five Tips for Lawyers for Effective ADR Client Counseling, Professor Donna Shestowsky, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, School of Law
2024: Arbitrating Sports, Politics, & Human Rights: Who Decides?, Professor Maureen Arellano Weston, Professor of Law and Director of the Entertainment, Media & Sports Dispute Resolution Project, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. This lecture is available to view on YouTube.
2023: Truth. Regardless of Reconciliation?, Professor Michael Moffitt, Philip H. Knight Chair
University of Oregon, School of Law & Honors College, and Professor Bobbie Conner, Director of Tamástslikt (Tah-MAHST-slickt) Cultural Institute, the tribally-owned museum on the Umatilla Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon
2022: Civil Public Discourse: Some Lessons from Psychology, Professor Jennifer Kirkpatrick Robbennolt, Associate Dean for Research and Alice Curtis Campbell Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology, and Co-Director of the Illinois Program on Law, Behavior and Social Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2021: Restorative Justice and Anti-Racism, Professor Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor and former Dean of the Law School Harvard University
2020: Hiding Harassment, Professor Pat Chew, Judge J. Quint Salmon & Anne Salmon Chaired Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
2019: Behavioral Ethics and Legal Negotiation, Professor Russell Korobkin, Vice Dean for Graduate and Professional Education and Richard C. Maxwell Professor of Law at UCLA
2018: Gender and Negotiation: What About the Guys, Professor Andrea Schneider, Marquette University Law School
In Memory of Chris Beecroft, Jr.
Chris Beecroft, Jr. was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He moved to Nevada and received his undergraduate degree from UNLV in 1971, the first recipient of the Nevada Centennial Scholarship Award, which is given to the graduating senior holding the highest four-year scholastic record. He then earned his law degree from McGeorge School of Law in 1974. Chris became a member of the State Bar of Nevada and worked in private law practice for over twenty-five years. Chris also was a president of the UNLV Alumni Association and served on the Alumni Board of Directors.
In 2000, Chris joined the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution and became its ADR Commissioner in 2001. He was tasked with developing and monitoring a collection of court- connected, alternative dispute resolution programs. These programs provided litigants an opportunity to resolve their disputes without having to go to a full trial. Shortly after becoming the ADR Commissioner, he began the Eighth Judicial District Court's Short Trial Program. This unique program went on to win an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties in 2004 and a better government award from the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in 2008. In 2008, he was appointed Family Court Discovery Commissioner and in 2012 he became the Discovery Commissioner for additional departments within the Eighth Judicial District Court.
Chris passed away on December 26, 2016 at the age of 67. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Christine, their children Melissa and Jonathan, along with other members of his extended family. His family lovingly remembers his passion for cooking, traveling, and spending time on his boat ("On The C's"). He was known to say, "Don't just watch the boats floating by, be on your boat floating by."