Danielle Allen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Danielle Allen
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Allen in 2017
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| Born | November 3, 1971 Takoma Park, Maryland, U.S.
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| Education | Princeton University (BA) King's College, Cambridge (MPhil, PhD) Harvard University (MA, PhD) |
| Spouse(s) | James Doyle |
| Awards | Marshall Scholarship MacArthur Fellowship Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |
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Main interests
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Political theory, history of political thought, political sociology, Greek and Roman political history |
Danielle Susan Allen (born November 3, 1971) is an American political scientist. She is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is also the former Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.
Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard in 2015, Allen was UPS Foundation Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Allen is the daughter of political scientist William B. Allen.
Allen was a contributing columnist at The Washington Post until she announced in December 2020 that she was exploring a run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2022. She formally announced her campaign for the Democratic Party nomination in June 2021, but then dropped out of the race in February 2022.
Education and academic career
Allen graduated from Princeton University in 1993 with an A.B. in Classics. She earned summa cum laude honors and an induction into Phi Beta Kappa. Allen completed a senior thesis titled "The State of Judgment" under the supervision of Andre Laks. As a Marshall Scholar, she studied at King's College at the University of Cambridge, where she received an M.Phil. in classics in 1994 and a Ph.D. in classics in 1996. Allen then pursued further graduate studies at Harvard University, earning an M.A. in government in 1998 and a Ph.D. in government in 2001. From 1997 to 2007, she served on the faculty of the University of Chicago, earning appointments as a professor of both classics and political science, as well as membership on the university's Committee on Social Thought. She served as Dean of the Division of the Humanities from 2004 to 2007. She organized The Dewey Seminar: Education, Schools and the State, with Rob Reich.
She is a former trustee of Amherst College and Princeton University, and is a past chair of the Pulitzer Prize board where she served from 2007 to 2015. She was the UPS Foundation Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, before joining the Harvard faculty and becoming director of the Safra Center in 2015.
She was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2001, in recognition of her combining "the classicist's careful attention to texts and language with the political theorist's sophisticated and informed engagement". An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Allen is a past chair of the Mellon Foundation board of trustees.
The New Yorker published Allen's "The Life of a South Central Statistic" in its July 24, 2017 issue.
Together with Stephen B. Heintz and Eric Liu, Allen chaired the bipartisan Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The commission, which was launched "to explore how best to respond to the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our political and civic life and to enable more Americans to participate as effective citizens in a diverse 21st-century democracy", issued a report, titled Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, in June 2020. The report included strategies and policy recommendations "to help the nation emerge as a more resilient democracy by 2026".
In October 2022, Allen joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project launched by Issue One to address the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts of social media in the United States co-chaired by former House Democratic Caucus Leader Dick Gephardt and former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.
Political career
Allen announced in December 2020 that she would explore a candidacy in the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial race. She announced on February 15, 2022, that she had no path, and ended her campaign on "pure math."
Personal life
Allen was born in Takoma Park, Maryland, U.S., but was raised in Claremont, California where her father taught at Harvey Mudd College. She graduated from Claremont High School.
Her father, William B. Allen, is a political philosopher and former chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Her mother, Susan, was a research librarian. She is married to James Doyle with two children.
Awards and honors
- 2020 John W. Kluge Prize, Library of Congress
- 2015 Francis Parkman Prize
- 2009 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2001 MacArthur Fellows Program
- 1993 Marshall Scholar
See also
In Spanish: Danielle Allen para niños
- Democracy
- Political equality
- William B. Allen
