Adams Speaker Series Event, John Adams:
Passion for the Public Good & Civic Education
The Adams Speaker Series gathers historians, politicians, political scientists, civic leaders, and citizens of all ages to engage in public discussions around the Adamses’ perspectives, actions, and legacies. Part of the APC’s Insitute for Civic Leadership, this quarterly free public programming convenes one discussion annually about each of the four Adamses: John, Abigail, John Quincy, and Louisa Catherine.
October 30, 2024
5:00 pm Check In
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm Program
Quincy High School
100 Coddington Street
Quincy, MA
Adams Speaker Series Event, John Adams: Passion for the Public Good & Civic Education
Join a distinguished panel of historians and civic leaders to celebrate John Adams’ birthday at the APC. This dynamic panel of experts will explore the factors that fueled John Adams’ deep patriotism, passion for the public good, and unwavering commitment to becoming one of America’s Founders.
Register
This is a free public program. Register to reserve your space in-person or join us virtually.
Distinguished Civics and History Panelists
Professor Danielle Allen
James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University Director, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard Kennedy School
Danielle Allen is a founding member of the Adams Presidential Center Board of Directors, a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy at Harvard University, and a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, distinguished author, and mom.
Allen is a fierce advocate for democracy renovation and civics education. Allen serves as a Principal Investigator for the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a nonpartisan framework that helps educators prepare our young people for self-government. She is also the Founder and President of Partners in Democracy, a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating a culture of democratic commitment in Massachusetts and stregnthening the right to vote, to run for office, and to see and shape our communities.
A world-renowned scholar, Allen’s many books 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 Justice by Means of Democracy.
Allen puts her political theory into practice as an active participant in Masachusetts politics. In 2024, Allen ran for Democratic State Committeewoman for Middlesex and Suffolk counties and, in 2022, she ran for governor of Massachusetts.
Dr. Jane Kamensky
President and CEO of Monticello
Dr. Jane Kamensky serves as the President and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private nonprofit that owns and operates Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.
For thirty years, Kamensky worked as a professor and higher education leader. Before joining Monticello, she served as Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. In her years as Director of the Schlesinger Library, Kamensky successfully worked to raise the profile of the library to the most preeminent of its kind in the world by partnering with an international network of diverse scholars and thought leaders.
Kamensky is the author or editor of numerous books, including A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley (2016), which won four major prizes and was a finalist for several others; and the authoritative Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, co-edited with the late Edward G. Gray. Her most recent book, Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution, was published by W.W. Norton in March 2024.
A former Commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Kamensky serves as a Trustee of the Museum of the American Revolution, a member of the National Advisory Council of More Perfect, and as one of the principal investigators on the NEH/Department of Education-funded initiative, Educating for American Democracy, among many other public history roles.
Jeffrey Rosen
President and CEO of the National Constitution Center
Jeffrey Rosen is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker.
Rosen’s new book is The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. His other books include the New York Times bestseller Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft.
Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.