Register (In-Person Only)

Join this year's joint Russell Lecture and Solomont Speaker Series event with Tufts alumnus, Varun Soni, A96! Soni is the Dean of Religious and Spiritual life at the University of Southern California, where he also served as the inaugural vice provost of campus wellness and crisis intervention. He is the first and only Hindu in American history to serve as the chief spiritual leader of a college or university. Dean Soni previously taught civil rights and constitutional law at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A prolific public speaker and scholar of religions, Dean Soni is a national interfaith leader and advocate for religious reconciliation.

Outside of his role as Dean, Soni serves as a senior advisor for Religion of Sports, a production company founded by Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, and Gotham Chopra, and he also advises the video game company Naughty Dog, where he contributed to the Uncharted and The Last of Us franchises. He's been a consultant for HBO, ESPN, Showtime, A&E, History Channel, Live Nation, and the Oprah Winfrey Network, and produced the graphic novel Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary.

This event is jointly hosted by Tisch College's Solomont Speaker Series and by the University Chaplaincy's Russell Lecture, the oldest lectureship at Tufts University. It is cosponsored by the Asian American Center and Experimental College at Tufts.

Registration required. A reception in Eaton 250 from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. will follow the public lecture. All are welcome.