Event Hero

Events

We host events that bring together policy experts, business leaders, and students. Learn more about our various series and upcoming events below.

Policy@McCombs

General audience discussions of current policy issues. Click here to see the speaker list.

Policy Lunch Seminar

Academic presentations on policy research from economists, statisticians, political scientists, etc. Click here to see the speaker list.

Causal Inference Seminar

Brings the best researchers from inside and outside UT Austin to present on causal methodology and applications to social science, economics, and policy. Click here to see the speaker list.

Engaging Orthodoxy

Not everything new is good. Click here to see the speaker list.

Texas Dream Series

These events will bring some of the leading new thinkers to campus in order to speak on important issues relevant to US state and local government, with a particular focus on what is going on in Texas. Speaker list coming soon.

Upcoming Events

Energy for All and Environmental Protection on The Journey to a Global Net Zero

Join us in person at RRH 4.314 or via Zoom here. Address: 300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX, 78705 This is a thought-provoking nonpartisan presentation on the dual challenge facing ‘Spaceship Earth’ with 8 billion people ‘on deck’: energy for all and environmental protection. 2.4 billion people need access to clean cooking, […]

Today March 29, 2023 at 4:00 pm

The Texas Empirical Policy Conference (TEPC)

The Texas Empirical Policy Conference (TEPC) is a forum for interdisciplinary scholarship on contemporary policy from the fields of heath economics, education reform, meta-analysis, law, etc. The prior conference (previously known as the ALI conference, which can be found here) explored the role of policies in education, finance, entrepreneurship, and energy. The 2023 conference will build […]

In 1 Days March 30, 2023 at 9:00 am

TBD, Choose Your Issues Ep 16

The Podcast of the Objectivism Program at the Salem Center in the University of Texas at Austin. Gregory Salmieri and others discuss issues of the day in light of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of reason, individualism, and capitalism. Join us live in CBA 3.202

In 6 Days April 4, 2023 at 5:30 pm

Past Events

Why There Is an Individual Right to Abortion

Join us in person at CBA 3.202 or via Zoom here. Much of today’s debate about abortion rights deals with questions about the point in pregnancy at which the fetus or embryo first acquires the right to live. But the real question we must answer to resolve the debate is a philosophical one about the […]

March 28, 2023 at 6:30 pm

How Will AI Change Ethics?

Please join the Salem Center as we welcome Pedro Domingos to discuss AI. The ethical issues surrounding AI have received a lot of attention lately, but unfortunately it’s all been about shoehorning AI into current Western ethical norms. But AI will dramatically change society and therefore ethics, as did previous technological revolutions (e.g., printing, the pill). This talk will examine how AI might change our views of what’s ethical and what’s not, and how […]

March 23, 2023 at 4:30 pm

Objectivism and Education, with guest Matt Bateman, Choose Your Issues Ep 14

The Podcast of the Objectivism Program at the Salem Center in the University of Texas at Austin. Gregory Salmieri and others discuss issues of the day in light of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of reason, individualism, and capitalism. Join us live in CBA 3.202

March 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm