Political Philosopher Danielle Allen to Lecture at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Danielle Allen, a political philosopher and author of “Our Declaration,” will present a lecture on the Declaration of Independence in The University of Alabama’s Rast Room in the Bryant Conference Center Monday, Oct. 26 at 4 p.m.

The lecture is presented by the Blount Speaker Series and is free and open to the public.

Allen will discuss the history of democracy through the framework of the Declaration of Independence. She will present the text as a coherent and riveting argument about equality, an animating force that could and did transform the course of the everyday lives of Americans.

Challenging conventional political wisdom, she will make the case that we cannot have freedom as individuals without equality among Americans as a people.

Allen is a political philosopher widely known for her work on justice and citizenship. A former right-wing Republican, Allen became interested in the gap between America’s rich and poor and turned her views toward fighting inequality.

She has been named the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and is a professor in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ department of government.

She also is a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and is a contributor to the United Kingdom Labour Party’s policy review. Allen is also chair of the board of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Previously, Allen worked on President Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, founded the Civic Knowledge Project to offer university lectures in Chicago’s economically disadvantaged communities, and she was a former chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board.

She is the author of “The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens” (2000), “Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education” (2004), “Why Plato Wrote” (2010), and “Our Declaration” (2014). She is a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, frequent public lecturer and regular guest on public radio. She has contributed to the Boston Review, Democracy, Cabinet and The Nation.

For more information, visit www.blount.as.ua.edu/blount-academics/speaker-series.

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships and Goldwater Scholarships.