How do you save a language? That question has occupied linguist Lenore Grenoble since the early 1990s, when she made her first trek to a remote area of Siberia to study Evenki, the rapidly disappearing tongue of a Siberian indigenous group.

For many, the term “institutional corruption” evokes memories of American scandals ranging from Watergate to the downfall of Bernie Madoff. But Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig expects to complicate that perception when delivering the 2014-2015 Randy L. and Melvin R. Berlin Family Lectures, a five-week series that begins Oct. 16 in Mandel Hall.