Pete Buttigieg to speak at Carleton College on April 28
Carleton President Alison Byerly will host the conversation.
Former Secretary of Transportation and 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary candidate Pete Buttigieg will speak at Carleton College on Tuesday, April 28. Carleton President Alison Byerly will host the conversation, which will invite Buttigieg to offer insights from his recent service at the federal level, as well as his other extensive political experience. He also will answer pre-submitted questions from students, faculty, and staff of the College.
The event, part of the College’s Engaging Across Viewpoints lecture series, is private and open only to members of the campus community who pre-register. A limited number of journalists and special guests also have been pre-selected to attend.
During his tenure as U.S. Secretary of Transportation from 2021 to 2025, Buttigieg worked to launch over 70,000 infrastructure projects across the country, improve transportation safety and technology, expand airline passenger protections, and resolve pandemic-related supply chain disruptions.
Previously, Buttigieg served two terms as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, where he was elected at the age of 29 and led the city to its strongest period of economic and population growth in decades. He also served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, taking a leave of absence from his role as mayor in 2014 to deploy to Afghanistan. A candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, his historic campaign won the Iowa caucuses and finished second in the New Hampshire primary.
He holds degrees in history and literature from Harvard and in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He lives in northern Michigan with his husband Chasten; their two children, Gus and Penelope; and their dog, Buddy.
About the Lecture Series
The Engaging Across Viewpoints lecture series, made possible by the generous gift of a Carleton alum and organized by the College’s Division of Inclusion, Equity, and Community, is intended to support inclusivity, diversity, and intellectual curiosity within the Carleton community. Inspired by Carleton 2033: The Liberal Arts in Action, the series seeks to create space for experimentation, exploration, and intellectual risk-taking inside and outside of the classroom. To support this goal, it provides students, faculty, and staff with an opportunity to constructively engage with notable speakers who will generate strong community interest and promote ideas that broaden and expand the mainstream of thought on campus. Past speakers have included Dr. Simon Cullen, whose work guides students to understand, discuss, and evaluate controversial arguments more deeply and with less bias, and David Blankenhorn, co-founder of Braver Angels, a nonprofit dedicated to political depolarization.
About Carleton College
Consistently ranked among the nation’s top liberal arts institutions, Carleton is a private college of about 2,000 students located in Northfield, Minnesota, just 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Nationally recognized as the nation’s top college for undergraduate teaching, Carleton is known for its academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and sense of humor. Carleton offers 33 majors and 38 minors in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences. Learn more about Carleton at carleton.edu.