The Heritage Foundation is honored that scholar and author Charles R. Kesler will deliver the inaugural Edwin J. Feulner Lecture.

The namesake of the lecture, Dr. Edwin J. Feulner (1941-2025), was a founder of The Heritage Foundation and one of the chief architects of the modern conservative movement. As Heritage’s longest-serving president, he helped pioneer the model of a policy-oriented think tank. Throughout his career, he was known as a principled leader who understood, “In Washington, there are no permanent victories or defeats, only permanent battles that every generation must wage to preserve the free society.”

His reach extended far beyond Heritage, maintaining strong ties with academic and policy communities in the United States and abroad and helping to found and lead institutions that shaped public policy, educated students, strengthened civil society, and connected conservatives worldwide. His optimistic vision continues to guide the work of Heritage: building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish.

The Edwin J. Feulner Lecture Series recognizes distinguished leaders and thinkers whose work reflects his commitment to principled ideas, strategic leadership, and the American ideal.

Charles R. Kesler is the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, and editor of the Claremont Review of Books. A leading scholar of American political thought and constitutionalism, he teaches in the Claremont Institute’s Publius and Lincoln Fellows programs and previously directed CMC’s Henry Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom. He earned his B.A. from Harvard University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard. The recipient of the 2018 Bradley Prize, Kesler is the author, editor, and co-editor of numerous influential works on American politics and conservatism including Crisis of Two Constitutions: The Rise, Decline & Recovery of American Greatness and the nation’s best-selling edition of The Federalist Papers.

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