[JFKI-News] Reminder: Declaration 250 Event Tomorrow!

["Viola, Lora Anne" <lviola@zedat.fu-berlin.de>]

Declaration 250: Histories, Memories, Narratives

While the 4th of July is enshrined in collective memory as the birth of the United States, the event at the John F. Kennedy marks another historical date: It was on July 2, 1776, that the Continental Congress first voted to renounce allegiance to the British Crown and declare the independence of the American colonies. At that time, Congress had before it a significantly more radical draft of the text, which it would shorten by about a quarter over the next two days and finally adopt on July 4 as the “Declaration of the Representatives of the United States of America.” Based on these two different versions of the American Declaration of Independence, historians David Armitage of Harvard University (“Doubting the Declaration, from 2026 to 1776”) and Johann Neem of Western Washington University (“The Contest over the American Revolution Today”) and American studies scholar Hannah Spahn from Freie Universität Berlin (“The Reinvention of ‘All Men Are Created Equal’”) will shed light on the collective memories and controversial narratives that continue to have an impact to this day. The event will be introduced by Lora Anne Viola, Director of the John F. Kennedy Institute, and the panel discussion will be moderated by Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Head of the Department of History at the John F. Kennedy Institute.

 Event Details

·      Date and time: Thursday, July 2, 2026, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.

·      Location: Room 340, John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Lansstraße 7/9, 14195 Berlin

·      More information on the event “Declaration 250: Histories, Memories, Narratives” at https://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/dates/2026-07-02-250-USA.html

 

Attachment: Poster_Program.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document