Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. A political theorist, Allen recently received the 2020 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity by the Library of Congress in recognition of her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America. Since March 2020, she has been leading a collaboration of scientists and researchers from top institutions, including Harvard Global Health Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation, to develop a 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. Allen’s most recent book, which she co-edited, is Difference without Domination: Pursuing Justice in Diverse Democracies (2020). In addition, she is the author of
Education and Equality (2016),
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), and
Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education (2004) and is co-editor of the award-winning book
Education, Justice, and Democracy (2013, with Rob Reich). She also is a contributing columnist to the
Washington Post. Her essays and commentaries have appeared widely in outlets including the
Atlantic, NPR, and the
New Yorker on such diverse topics as protecting American democracy, reforming prisons, and combating a global pandemic. In 2018, she was a speaker for CIC’s Diversity, Civility, and the Liberal Arts Institute. Allen has served as chair of the board of trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Pulitzer Prize Board, and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.