Thursday, November 12, 2026 - 5:00pm • Lubar

Please join us for the 2026 Barrock Lecture on Criminal Law. Pushing the Boulder Uphill: Research Evidence, Mental Health Policy, and Social Change, presented by Jeffrey W. Swanson, Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine and a Faculty Affiliate of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School. 

Thursday, November 12, 2026

• 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., immediately followed by a public reception
• Marquette University Law School – Eckstein Hall, Lubar Center
• The event is complimentary; however, registration is required HERE.

What can social science contribute to legal and policy debates? Where can evidence illuminate policy choices, where can it not, and what can an applied medical sociologist's experience working at the intersection of mental health, law, and public policy teach us about how legal and public institutions learn? 

This lecture explores those questions through the long aftermath of de-institutionalization, one of the most consequential social-policy experiments of the 20th century. It will draw on research measuring the unmet needs for public mental health services, outpatient civil commitment, psychiatric advance directives, and the prevention of firearm violence and suicide. On that basis, the lecture will reflect—through one researcher’s four decades of experience—on society's continuing efforts to respond to the needs of people with serious mental illnesses while balancing care, autonomy, public safety, and individual rights. 

This lecture series remembers George Barrock, L’31, and Margaret Barrock.

Contact: Christine Wilczynski-Vogel, Associate Dean for External Relations