2022 Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture with Dr. Danielle Allen
January 27, 2022 from 6-7 p.m.- January 27, 2022 from 6-7 p.m.
- Online
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Please Note: General admission tickets to this event will now be online-only and are Pay What You Wish.
The purchase of an event ticket is considered a donation in support of the Museum’s educational programs.
The 2022 Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture with Dr. Danielle Allen is sponsored by Savills.
Political theorist and author Dr. Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, will join the Museum as the distinguished lecturer for the fourth Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. Her talk will focus on her groundbreaking book Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. Dr. Jane Kamensky, who serves on the Museum’s Board of Directors and is the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, will provide introductory remarks to this event hosted by Dr. R. Scott Stephenson, President & CEO.
Inspired by her work in justice and citizenship, and troubled by the fact that so few Americans actually know what the Declaration of Independence says, Allen set out to explore the arguments of the Declaration, reading it with both adult night students and University of Chicago undergraduates. Keenly aware that the Declaration is riddled with contradictions, Allen and her students nonetheless came to see that the Declaration makes a coherent and riveting argument about equality. They found not a historical text that required memorization, but an animating force that could and did transform the course of their everyday lives. In an “uncommonly elegant, incisive, and often poetic primer on America’s cardinal text,” Our Declaration now brings these insights to the general reader, illuminating the “three great themes of the Declaration: equality, liberty, and the abiding power of language” (American historian David M. Kennedy). With its cogent analysis and passionate advocacy, Our Declaration thrillingly affirms the continuing relevance of America’s founding text, ultimately revealing what democracy actually means and what it asks of us. Our Declaration was awarded the Heartland Prize, the Zócalo Book Prize, and the Society of American Historians’ Francis Parkman Prize.
The event marks the fourth Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture, a series established by the generosity of the family, friends, and colleagues of the late Carl Buchholz, former vice-chairman of the Museum’s Board of Directors. The series was created to honor his public service and to explore the political thought of the American Revolution and its national relevance today. Those interested in contributing to the endowment for this annual lecture can contact [email protected].
Thank you for making it possible to offer events like this one. The purchase of an event ticket is considered a donation in support of the Museum’s educational programs. Please note that the event recording will only be available to ticketholder for 14 days following the program. The recording will be emailed to registrants after the event.
Health & Safety Note
Guests attending this program in person will be required to show proof of COVID vaccination upon entry. Original CDC vaccination cards, photos, or electronic copies of the card are all acceptable forms of documentation. Proof of a negative COVID test will not be accepted. For ticket-holders unable to provide proof of vaccination, a livestream link will be made available. Please contact the front desk at 215.253.6731 with any questions.
Please Note: General admission tickets to this event will now be online-only and are Pay What You Wish.
About Danielle Allen
Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. She is the recipient of the 2020 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, an award administered by the Library of Congress that recognizes work in disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prizes. Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (2000), Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education (2004), Why Plato Wrote (2010), Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), Education and Equality (2016), and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. (2017). She is the co-editor of the award-winning Education, Justice, and Democracy (2013, with Rob Reich) and From Voice to Influence: Understanding Citizenship in the Digital Age (2015, with Jennifer Light).
Allen is a past Chair of the Mellon Foundation Board and the Pulitzer Prize Board, as well as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. She is a co-Chair of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, formed to explore how best to respond to the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in political and civic life. Its final and bipartisan report, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, was released in June 2020 and includes six strategies and 31 ambitious recommendations to help the nation emerge as a more resilient democracy by 2026, the nation’s 250th anniversary. As Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Allen led a collaboration of scientists and researchers at leading institutions including Harvard Global Health Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, CovidActNow, Covid-Local, CIDRAP and many others to develop the Key Metrics For COVID Suppression framework, that provides clear, accessible guidance to policy makers and the public on how to target and suppress COVID-19 more effectively across the nation.
In her latest book, Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus (University of Chicago Press, 2021), Allen untangles the US government’s COVID-19 victories and failures to offer a plan for creating a more resilient democratic polity—one that can better respond to both the present pandemic and future crises.