The Declaration of Independence Today: Why an Old Text Still Serves Us Now

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics is delighted to bring political philosopher and democracy advocate Danielle Allen to St. Louis for a public lecture in conjunction with the special course “1776: Then and Now” being offered in the spring 2026 semester to commemorate the 250th years since the country’s founding.

Event Schedule, April 16, 2026:

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Graham Chapel, WashU Danforth Campus

8:30 pm – 9:30 pm: Reception for all ticketed audience members in Rettner Gallery, Wrighton Hall

Doors will open at 6 pm, and we encourage you to arrive early to allow time for walk from parking and ticket checks at the door.

Ticketing: Although this is a free event open to all, seats are limited and tickets will be required to attend the Graham Chapel program and the reception immediately following. Graham Chapel accommodates general admission seating; your ticket does not designate a specific seat. Each attendee will need their own ticket in their name. If you have questions about tickets, please contact us at [email protected] or (314) 935-9345.

Waitlist: When we have reached capacity for our venue, you will be able to join the waitlist. If more tickets become available, you will be informed via email. You will have to respond to those instructions in order to claim the tickets.

Book Sales: We will have Professor's Allen's books for sale on site.

Security: Guests should be prepared for security measures such as bag checks and are encouraged to leave large bags at home.

More Information: Please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) below.

Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is also Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Democratic Knowledge Project, a research lab focused on civic education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy as well as a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, distinguished author, and mom. She is a contributing columnist at The Atlantic Magazine, winner of the 2025 Barry Prize, and was the 2020 winner of the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. She received the Prize “for her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.”

Across nearly three decades in higher ed, Danielle 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 (2004-7); she chaired the board of the Mellon Foundation (2015-19), as that foundation expanded the range of institutions in which it invests; she wrote for the Washington Post from 2008-2024, with a column on constitutional democracy; and she has developed a public policy portfolio on issues from cannabis legalization and public health policy to democracy renovation, civic education, and sound governance of and with new technology. From 2015-2023, Danielle served as the Director of Harvard’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics, which launched its Intercollegiate Civil Disagreement Fellowship and Public Dialogue series during her tenure. During the height of COVID in 2020, Danielle’s leadership in rallying coalitions and building solutions resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her team’s policies were adopted in federal legislation and a presidential executive order; and, from 2020 to 2022, in response to the governance failures of the pandemic, Danielle ran for governor of Massachusetts, making history as the first Black woman ever to run for statewide office in Massachusetts. She is a lead author on the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (EAD), a framework for securing excellence in history and civic education for all learners, K-12, released in 2021, and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and U.S. Department of Education under both the Trump and the Biden administrations. She continues to serve on the EAD Implementation Consortium. Learning from the natural sciences, she has built labs to extend the impact of work in the humanities and social sciences. The non-profit organization that she founded, and for which she chairs the board, Partners In Democracy, continues to scale up civic education curricula and democracy renovation policies developed by her labs.

As a scholar, Danielle currently 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 to improve their responsiveness, increase the accountability of officeholders, and reward the participation of ordinary citizens. Her most recent book, , provides the foundation for this work. Her forthcoming book, The Radical Duke, a biography of an 18th century British political reformer, is due out with Liveright/Norton 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, , , and . Her many edited volumes include and .

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