Excellence in Teaching Day
Boston College鈥檚 Excellence in Teaching Day, which takes place on May 5, will feature panels and speakers鈥攊ncluding a keynote address by Harvard University faculty member Danielle S. Allen鈥攄iscussing a broad range of issues in civic education and teaching future leaders.
Danielle S. Allen
Excellence in Teaching Day also will include a student panel focused on "Learning to Disagree" and faculty breakout panels on GenAI, practicing democracy in the classroom, community-engaged learning, and the changing stakes of class attendance.
Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor, is the director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard鈥檚 Kennedy School of Government and director of the Democratic Knowledge Project, a research lab focused on civic education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
鈥淲e are delighted to host Professor Danielle Allen as this year鈥檚 Excellence in Teaching Day keynote speaker,鈥� said Center for Teaching Excellence Executive Director Stacy Grooters. 鈥淚n her talk, 鈥楨ducating for American Democracy,鈥� Allen will take up the question of higher education's responsibility to prepare the next generation of civic leaders: with values of pluralism, civil disagreement, and reflective patriotism at the center of the work.鈥�
Allen is a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy as well as a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, distinguished author, and mom. She is the author of Justice by Means of Democracy and the forthcoming book The Radical Duke, a biography of an 18th-century British political reformer. Her other books include 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; Talking to Strangers; Why Plato Wrote; and The World of Prometheus.
Allen chairs the board of Partners in Democracy and of FairVote, the nation's leading advocate for ranked choice voting, and is a co-chair of the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where she is a member. She also serves on the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and in 2022 she unsuccessfully pursued the Democratic Party nomination for governor in Massachusetts.
For more information about Excellence in Teaching Day, go to the CTE's website at
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