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Danielle Allen, associate professor of classical languages and literatures, political science and the committee on social thought at the University of Chicago, will deliver the 2003 Julius Rosenthal Lecture Series at Northwestern Law.

Free and open to the public, Allen’s three lectures will take place at 4 p.m. March 4 and at noon on March 5 and April 9. She will investigate the history of citizenship in the United States and argue that the period from 1954-1964 should be seen as one of reconstitution that highlighted the foundational status of sacrifice in democratic political experience.

The lectures, titled “Loss, Distrust, and Citizenship” (March 4), “Imperfect Democracy” (March 5), and “Political Friendship and the Good of Rhetoric” (April 9), are the basis for Allen’s forthcoming book titled Talking to Strangers: on rhetoric, distrust, and citizenship.

"The lecture series has assumed a preeminent position among distinguished legal lecture programs," said David E. Van Zandt, professor of law and dean of Northwestern University School of Law. "Publication of the lectures has contributed to legal literature and scholarship for more than 60 years. Professor Allen is certain to continue this tradition with her boundary-crossing investigations into the history of citizenship in the U.S."

Originally trained in the classics, Allen recently received a second doctorate in political science, providing a strong basis for her investigations into the essential philosophical, literary, and cultural threads of the social fabric. Her work contributes new perspectives to discussions of race and politics that go well beyond the confines of traditional scholarship.

Allen, who received her MA and PhD from Harvard University, and a M.Phil and PhD from the University of Cambridge, has been affiliated with the University of Chicago since 1997. Her recent book, The World of Prometheus, examines the theory and practice of punishment in classical Athens as it affected both the intellectual elite and ordinary citizens.

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