Tanner Lectures
Photo by Christine Baker
The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society collaborates with the Office of the President to host the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Stanford.
The Tanner Lectures were established by the late American scholar, industrialist and philanthropist Obert Clark Tanner. In creating the lectureships, Tanner said, "I hope these lectures will contribute to the intellectual and moral life of mankind. I see them simply as a search for a better understanding of human behavior and human values. This understanding may be pursued for its own intrinsic worth, but it may also eventually have practical consequences for the quality of personal and social life."
Stanford is proud to be one of the nine distinguished universities to host the Tanner Lectures. The Tanner lectureships, which are comprised of annual lectures and seminars, are held at Cambridge, Harvard, Michigan, Oxford, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, the University of California and the University of Utah.
The purpose of the Tanner Lectures is to advance and reflect upon scholarly and scientific learning relating to human values. This intention embraces the entire range of values pertinent to the human condition, interest, behavior and aspiration. The lectures are published in an annual volume.
Appointment as a Tanner lecturer is in recognition for uncommon achievement and outstanding abilities in the field of human values. The lecturers themselves come from the fields of philosophy, religion, the humanities, sciences, creative arts and learned professions — or from leadership in public or private affairs. The lectureships are international and intercultural and transcend ethnic, national, religious and ideological distinctions. Past Tanner lecturers at Stanford include: Tommie Shelby, Seth Lazar, Andrew Bacevich, Danielle Allen, Jared Diamond, Dorothy Allison, Paul Krugman, Mary Robinson, Harry Frankfurt, Avishai Margalit, David Brion Davis and Glenn Loury.
2024-25 Tanner Lecture: We Are Called to Be a Movement
Now more than ever, it’s time for everyone who cares about the state of our nation to heed the call and join forces to redeem the soul of America. We must unite and renounce the politics of rejection, division, and greed, lift up the common good, move up to higher ground, and revive the heart of democracy.
Our 2024-25 Tanner Lecture will be given by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of Repairers of the Breach and the Poor People’s Campaign. During this inspiring lecture, Rev. Dr. Barber will make an impassioned argument with a message that could not be clearer: It's time for change, and these times need you.
For years Rev. Dr. Barber has been one of the country’s most gifted moral fusion organizers, strategists, and orators. He is the author of five books: White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy; We Are Called To Be A Movement; Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement; and Forward Together: A Moral Message For The Nation.
Rev. Dr. Barber’s activism focuses on economic justice, civil rights, and building moral movements. His Tanner Lecture, “We Are Called to Be a Movement,” will take place on Thursday, November 14, from 5 - 7 p.m., at Stanford Memorial Church. The discussion seminar will be held on Friday, November 15, from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., at the Center for Inter-Religious Community, Learning and Experiences (CIRCLE) Common Room.
Event Details:
- November 14, 5-7 p.m., Stanford Memorial Church
- “We Are Called to Be a Movement”
- Commentator: Dorian Warren, Community Change
- November 15, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the Center for Inter-Religious Community, Learning and Experiences (CIRCLE) Common Room
- Discussion Seminar
- Commentators: Pamela S. Karlan, Stanford University and Melvin L. Rogers, Brown University
The Tanner Lectures are co-sponsored with the Office of the President.
Commentator Bios:
Dorian Warren is co-president of Community Change and Community Change Action, and co-founder of the Economic Security Project. Warren taught for over a decade at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. He's the co-author of The Hidden Rules of Race, co-editor of Race and American Political Development, and has penned numerous academic articles. Dorian previously worked as a guest host and contributor at MSNBC. He sits on several boards, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Education Fund Board and The Nation Magazine Editorial Board. As a commentator on public affairs, Warren has appeared regularly on television and radio and has also written for The New York Times, Newsweek, and Ebony.com, among others.
Melvin L. Rogers is Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor, Political Science Department at Brown University. He is the author of The Undiscovered Dewey: Religion, Morality and the Ethos of Democracy (Columbia University Press) and The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought (Princeton University Press). He is also the editor of John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems (Ohio University Press), co-editor of African American Political Thought: A Collected History (University of Chicago Press), and co-editor of the book series: Oxford New Histories of Philosophy. He received the 2023 James W. C. Pennington Award from Heidelberg University for his scholarship.
Pamela S. Karlan is the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. Pam’s scholarship focuses on constitutional litigation. She is co-author of The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process and Civil Rights Actions: Enforcing the Constitution (two leading casebooks) as well as dozens of scholarly articles. Before entering teaching, Pam was an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Most recently, she served as the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.
