Former Democratic senator Russell D. Feingold will serve as the inaugural Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at the Haas Center for Public Service, according to a Stanford Report statement released Monday. Feingold, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2011, will hold the position for the duration of winter quarter, holding weekly discussions with undergraduates and graduate students on political issues.

The former Wisconsin senator will also deliver two public lectures. His talk at the Haas Center’s Distinguished Visitor Lecture on Public Service and Citizenship on Feb. 8 will be titled “While America Sleeps: A Wake-Up Call for the Post-9/11 Era.”

In addition, Feingold will deliver the annual Wesson lectures Feb. 27 and 28 and will discuss “Corporate Power and Citizens United: How the Supreme Court Created a New System of Political Corruption.” Commentators will include Joshua Cohen, Stanford professor of political science, philosophy and law, and Stephen Ansolabehere, Harvard professor of government.

Feingold, who was honored in September with the Roosevelt Institute’s 2011 Four Freedoms Award, is known for his efforts toward government transparency and his collaboration with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on campaign finance reform. The two senators co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill in 2002.

Feingold discusses the role of American citizens in global politics after Sept. 11, 2001, in his forthcoming book, “While America Sleeps.” The Wisconsin native was also the only senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act when it was first voted on in 2001.

Feingold spent his undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A Rhodes Scholar, he attended Oxford University and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. After serving in the Wisconsin State Senate for a decade, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, a position he held for 18 years. He is currently a visiting professor at Marquette University Law School.

– Margaret Rawson