Shapiro Lecture: Democracy and the Declaration Across 250 Years

Name: Shapiro Lecture: Democracy and the Declaration Across 250 Years | The Huntington
Start: Thu, Jun 25 2026
Location: The Huntington

Event

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, distinguished Harvard University political philosopher, ethicist & public policy expert Danielle Allen will deliver the 2026 Shapiro Lecture.

Harvard scholar Danielle Allen will explore how the Declaration’s promise of political equality informs her teaching, advocacy, democracy and civics education work. Following her lecture, Allen will join Susan Juster, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, to discuss the historical significance and continued relevance of this founding document today.

This special program is part of THIS LAND IS …, The Huntington’s sweeping multiyear initiative that marks the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding and reflects on the American story through the lens of land.

Limited quantities of pre-signed copies of Allen’s books Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014) and Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat―and the American Revolution―Transformed Britain (June 2026) will be available for purchase in Rothenberg Hall 30 minutes before the start of the program (6-6:30 p.m.) and 30 minutes after the program ends (7:30-8 p.m.). Unsigned copies of select titles are also available through the Huntington Store:

About the Featured Guest

Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and a leading scholar of philosophy, ethics, and public policy. She directs the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Democratic Knowledge Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, and distinguished author. She is a contributing columnist at The Atlantic magazine and recipient of both the 2025 Barry Prize and the 2020 Kluge Prize from the Library of Congress.

Over nearly three decades in higher education, Allen has worked to make the world better for young people. She won the Quantrell Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching at the University of Chicago, where she also served as Dean of the Division of Humanities. Her public leadership includes chairing the board of the Mellon Foundation, contributing a long-running column to the Washington Post on constitutional democracy, and developing a public policy portfolio on issues from public health policy to democracy renovation, civic education, and technology governance.

Allen’s current scholarship concentrates on democracy renovation: studying how to reconnect people to their civic power, experience, and responsibility via civic education and how to redesign our political institutions and encourage citizen participation. Her recent book, Justice by Means of Democracy, provides the foundation for this work, and her forthcoming book, Radical Duke, a biography of an 18th-century British political reformer, will be published in 2026.

Her many books also include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality; Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.; Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus; Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education; Why Plato Wrote; and The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens. Among her many edited volumes are From Voice to Influence: Understanding Citizenship in a Digital Age and A Political Economy of Justice.

Allen chairs the boards of Partners In Democracy and FairVote, co-chairs the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on multiple civic and cultural boards.