The Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership at the Hobby School of Public Affairs sponsors thought-provoking lectures, conferences and educational events that foster cross-disciplinary dialogue about the ethical dimensions of policy issues and leadership challenges.

2025-2026 Rebooting Our Relationship with Tech Lecture Series 

The Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center brings leading voices to the University of Houston campus to examine how digital tools, from smartphones and AI to algorithms and search engines, shape our connections, test our privacy and influence our democracy. The experts will challenge audiences to reflect on the ethical dimensions of technology's growth, convergence and potential for harm.  

How to Break Up with Your Phone 

Best-selling author and health and science journalist Catherine Price will share her expertise on the impact of a screen-based world and provide evidence-based strategies for reconnecting with parts of our lives that don't happen on a screen at 4 p.m. on Sept. 18 in the Student Center South Theater.   

Inside Texas Privacy Laws with Tyler Bridegan 

Tyler Bridegan is at the forefront of the state's evolving approach to privacy enforcement as the director of privacy and tech enforcement for the Texas Attorney General's office. Bridegan will discuss the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act and how his office holds major technology companies at 1 p.m. on Sep. 29 at the UH Law Center (room TBD). His lecture is a collaboration with the University of Houston Law Center. Room information and registration details are forthcoming. 

AI and Our Future: How AI and Search Engine Algorithms Reinforce Oppression   

Best-selling author and social scientist Safiya Umoja Noble will deliver the 2025 Elizabeth D. Rockwell Distinguished Lecture, sharing her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias, at 4 p.m. on Oct. 16 in the Rockwell Pavilion at M.D. Anderson Library.  

 
Antisocial Media: How Social Media Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy  

 
Cultural historian and media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan will deliver the 2026 Richard Gelwick Endowed Lecture, examining the impact of social media and AI on democracy, at 4 p.m. on Feb. 5 in the Rockwell Pavilion at M.D. Anderson Library.