Ellsberg photos and newspaper clippings

Democracy, Dissent, and Truth

Higher education plays a pivotal role in preparing students to uphold the tenets of democracy. Through our academic scholarship, we center public education as a central pillar in the development of imagination, understanding, and strategy to build a more just, peaceful, and democratic society.  

  • The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy: During the 2020–21 academic year, the university sponsored multiple ventures to explore his life and legacy, including a year-long seminar, the Ellsberg Archive Project website, a five-episode podcast series, and a free, online conference with more than two dozen high-profile scholars, journalists, former policymakers, whistleblowers, and activists. To build on this momentum, the university launched The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy. The initiative’s mission is to promote public understanding, scholarship, and activism in support of compelling and sustainable alternatives to militarism, authoritarianism, and environmental degradation. It recognizes that some of the world’s most pressing problems are interrelated and can only be resolved adequately through multidisciplinary problem solving.
  • Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series: The history department’s signature event series, the Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series focuses on "big issues" of clear and compelling concern, grounded in historical inquiry, context, analysis and experience. The event series is offered every other academic year thanks to the generosity of Kenneth Feinberg '67 and associates. 
  • Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies: The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies is a locus for research and teaching on the Holocaust, genocides, and events of mass violence as well as on the memory and representation of these historical occurrences. Now housed near the center of campus in a graceful 1929 Tudor-style house, with an attached lecture and exhibition hall, the Institute’s principal activities include: teaching and research, conferences and workshops, public events and lectures, and visits to the permanent exhibition.