Danielle S. Allen, the esteemed political theorist, has announced that she will be joining the faculty at Harvard University this July as a professor of government. Professor Allen will also serve as director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at the university.
In 2007, Dr. Allen was named the UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. Allen was the first African American to be appointed to the permanent faculty in the 77-year history of the Institute.
Previously, Dr. Allen was dean of humanities and professor of classical languages and literature at the University of Chicago. She served on the faculty at the University of Chicago from 1997 to 2007. In 2002 Dr. Allen received the prestigious MacArthur Foundation genius award.
Professor Allen is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University where she majored in the classics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in the classics from Cambridge University. In addition, she has a master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University.
Dr. Allen is the author of four books: The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (Princeton University Press, 2000), Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education (University of Chicago Press, 2004), Why Plato Wrote (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), and Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (Liveright, 2014).