Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She is also Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Democratic Knowledge Project-Learn, a research lab focused on civic education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy. She is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, distinguished author, and mom.

Danielle’s work to make the world better for young people has taken her from teaching college and leading a $60 million university division to driving change at the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing as a national opinion columnist, advocating for cannabis legalization, public health policy, democracy renovation, civic education, and sound governance of and with new technology. During the height of COVID in 2020, Danielle’s leadership in rallying coalitions and building solutions resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her team’s policies were adopted in federal legislation and a presidential executive order. She was the 2020 winner of the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. She received the Prize “for her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.” She was a lead author on the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a framework for securing excellence in history and civic education for all learners, K-12, released in 2021. During 2020 to 2022, Danielle ran for governor of Massachusetts, making history as the first Black woman ever to run for statewide office in Massachusetts. 

A past chair of the Mellon Foundation and Pulitzer Prize Board, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. As a scholar, she currently concentrates on democracy renovation: studying how to reconnect people to their civic power, experience, and responsibility via civic education and how to redesign our political institutions to improve their responsiveness. Her most recent book, Justice by Means of Democracy, provides the foundation for this work. Important projects in her labs include the GETTING-Plurality research network (focused on tech governance and AI ethics) and the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Learning from the natural sciences, she has built labs to extend the impact of work in the humanities and social sciences. 

Her many books also include the widely acclaimed 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. Her many edited volumes include From Voice to Influence: understanding citizenship in a digital age and A Political Economy of Justice. She began writing on constitutional democracy for the Washington Post in 2008, and served as a contributing columnist from 2015-2024.

Outside the University, she is Founder and President of Partners In Democracy, where she continues to advocate for democracy reform to create greater voice and access in our democracy, and drive progress towards a new social contract that serves and includes us all. She also serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, Cambridge Health Alliance, New America, FairVote, and the Democracy Fund. Danielle’s personal website is available here.

Research interests:
Political Philosophy
Ethics
Public Policy
Civic Education