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Political Theory Institute

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
–Socrates

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Welcome to PTI

The mission of the Political Theory Institute (PTI) is to encourage the serious study of the great questions of political theory and to bring the insights of political theorists to bear on current issues and events.
Mission Statement

Spring 2026 Events

All events are 5:30-7:00 pm ET and held in person in Kerwin Hall 301 and simultaneously broadcast on Zoom. Registration links for each event will be provided as they approach.

February 12: “Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery” Cara Rogers Stevens, Ashland University

February 26: “The Unmaking of American Citizenship: How Americans Learned Not to Love Their Country and What Can Be Done About It” Benjamin Ginsberg, Johns Hopkins University; Dorothea Israel Wolfson, Hertog Foundation

April 2: “Native Nations and Assimilation in Jefferson’s Lost Constitution of 1804” Jeremy Bailey, University of Florida 

April 16: “America’s Greatest Literature.” Panel Discussion Featuring: Keith Leonard, AU, Dept of Literature; Marianne Noble, AU, Dept of Literature;  Stuart Warner, Roosevelt University, Dept of Philosophy

(Postponed) “America’s Reconstruction as an Episode of Post-Conflict Nation-Building” Robert Mickey, University of Michigan

American University School of Public Affairs

Watch Previous PTI Events

Videos in this playlist

To play a specific video, use the playlist icon in the player or view each video on YouTube.

  1. American University School of Public Affairs

    Cornel West and Robert George Talk About the Purpose of a Liberal Education

  2. American University School of Public Affairs

    The Jefferson Paradox: Slavery and the American Founding | AU 250+ Lecture

  3. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Politics of Enlightenment: G.E. Lessing and the Question of Tolerance" with Hannes Kerber

  4. American University School of Public Affairs

    Lincoln Scholars Lecture: "What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life" with Peter Levine

  5. American University School of Public Affairs

    Lincoln Scholars - "The Odyssey and Its Migrations" with Daniel Mendelsohn

  6. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Liberalism Without Illusions" with William Galston

  7. American University School of Public Affairs

    "In Covid's Wake: Science, Liberal Democracy, and Elite Failure" with Stephen Macedo

  8. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Making the Executive Great Again or a Great Abuse of Power?" with Adam White and Jeffrey Lubers

  9. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Machiavelli, Poet and Lover" with Prof. Nathan Tarcov

  10. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation"

  11. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Angry Populist Politics: Why is it Happening and What To Do About It" with Ian Shapiro

  12. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Future of Conservatism" with Megan McArdle and Joshua Mitchell

  13. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Future of Progressivism" with Congressman Ro Khanna and Ruy Teixeira

  14. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Why Liberalism Needs Resentment" with Michelle Schwarze

  15. American University School of Public Affairs

    "A Common Justice? Comparing Western, Indian, and Chinese Traditions" with Hansong Li

  16. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Can the Constitution Unify Americans?" Constitution Day Lecture with Yuval Levin

  17. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Aristotle's Advice for America" with Lorraine Pangle

  18. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Academic Freedom and Liberal Education: A Discussion of Lara Schwartz's Try To Love The Questions."

  19. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Reading, Really Reading, the Gettysburg Address." with Michael Zuckert

  20. American University School of Public Affairs

    "A Web of Our Own Making" with Antón Barba-Kay

  21. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Plutarch's Education for Citizenship" with Hugh Liebert

  22. American University School of Public Affairs

    “Lincoln's Lyceum Address: Democratic Theory for Citizens” with Diana Schaub

  23. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Self Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians" featuring Tara Isabella Burton

  24. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Sovereign of a Free People: Abraham Lincoln on Respecting Election Results" featuring Jim Read

  25. American University School of Public Affairs

    A Constitution Day Lecture feat. Johnathan O'Neill on "Is the Administrative State Constitutional?"

  26. American University School of Public Affairs

    David Bromwich on "Disorder & Doctrine in America: Some Hints from Burke and Lincoln"

  27. American University School of Public Affairs

    Teresa Bejan on “Tolerance and Mere Civility”

  28. American University School of Public Affairs

    Eve Fairbanks on “Racial Reconciliation: What Can the United States Learn from South Africa?”

  29. American University School of Public Affairs

    John McWhorter on “Anti-Racism as Practiced Today: A Dissent”

  30. American University School of Public Affairs

    2022 Lincoln Scholars Lecture: Zena Hitz “Why You Shouldn’t Want to Rule the World"

  31. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Lessons from Walden: Thoreau & the Crisis of American Democracy" w/ Robert Pepperman Taylor

  32. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Idea of Decline in Western History" with Arthur Herman

  33. American University School of Public Affairs

    The Political Theory Institute Presents: "Is Patriotism Worth Preserving?" with Steven Smith

  34. American University School of Public Affairs

    "When is Dialogue Damaging?" with Shalini Satkunanandan

  35. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Catching Up with Ralph Ellison: The Blackness of Blackness" with Lucas Morel

  36. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Crush of Democracy: Tocqueville and the Egalitarian Mind" with Richard Avramenko

  37. American University School of Public Affairs

    "What is Identity Politics, and Does it Undermine our Liberal Polity?" with Joshua Mitchell

  38. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Why We are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment" with Benjamin Storey and Jenna Storey

  39. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Populism, Polarization, and National Identity" with Francis Fukuyama

  40. American University School of Public Affairs

    "What Can We Learn from Political History?" with Sophie Marcotte Chénard

  41. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Political and Constitutional Thought of Alexander Hamilton" with Stephen Knott

  42. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Progressivism and the Successor Ideology" with Author Wesley Yang

  43. American University School of Public Affairs

    "What Went Wrong with Modernity?" with Rémi Brague

  44. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Democratizing the Great Books" with Roosevelt Montas

  45. American University School of Public Affairs

    "The Life and Work of Gertrude Himmelfarb" w/ Will Kristol, Matt Continetti, Jerry Muller, Sam Moyne

  46. American University School of Public Affairs

    "After the Backlash: Immigration, Populism, and Liberal Nationalism" with Stephen Macedo

  47. American University School of Public Affairs

    "What is the National Interest?" with Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster

  48. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Fashion, Identity, and Freedom of Expression" with Gwenda-lin Grewal

  49. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Does the Center Have a Future in the United States?” with William Galston, Brookings Institution

  50. American University School of Public Affairs

    "Do the Humanities Have a Future? The Liberal Arts Between Technocracy and Radicalism”

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