The John W. Kluge Center invites you to an event looking at the dynamics of presidential primaries.

The event will take place on Thursday, November 7, at 4pm in room LJ-119 of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building. Free tickets are available here.

Kluge Center Director John Haskell will moderate a discussion on the dynamics of presidential primaries, timed just months before primary season begins. Julia Azari, former Kluge Center Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Marquette University political science professor, and Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report, will be panelists.

They will discuss the role of debates and endorsements in primaries, as well as the question of electability and the major changes affecting political parties and primary processes.

A reception will follow the program.

Tickets are recommended, but not required, and are free.

Register for a ticket here.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Request ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

The John W. Kluge Center invites you to an Author Salon with Danielle Allen

Get your free tickets here.

Please join us for an event in which Danielle Allen will discuss the meaning of the text of the Declaration of Independence. She is the author of Our Declaration (2015), which makes the case that the Declaration of Independence was intended to ensure equality as much as it was intended to secure freedom.

The event will be held at noon on November 12, in Room LJ-119 of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.

Allen is the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University as well as the author of several books, including Education and Equality (2016) and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. (2017).

Tickets are recommended, but not required, and are free.

Register for a ticket here.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Request ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Get your free tickets here.

This Thursday, November 21, at 4pm in the Thomas Jefferson Building’s Coolidge Auditorium, the John W. Kluge Center will hold a discussion of the 100 years of women voting since the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Assistant Deputy Librarian Colleen Shogan will lead a panel featuring two leading scholars on women and voting: Christina Wolbrecht of the University of Notre Dame, and Jane Junn of the University of Southern California. Wolbrecht is the co-author of the forthcoming book A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage.

This event will highlight the recently opened LOC exhibit, “Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote,” which will be open for viewing after the event.

The event is free, but due to expected demand, tickets are recommended. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed.

Register for a ticket here.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Thursday, December 5, at 4pm in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John W. Kluge Center will hold a discussion marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Get your free tickets here.

Hope M. Harrison and Constanze Stelzenmüller will take part in a discussion moderated by Kluge Center Director John Haskell.

Harrison is an expert on the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, and contemporary Germany, and is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. She is the author of the new book, After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present (2019).

Stelzenmüller is an expert on German, European, and transatlantic foreign and security policy and strategy. She is the inaugural Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution and the Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Kluge Center.

The event is free, but due to expected demand, tickets are recommended. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed. Register for a ticket here.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Get your free tickets here.

This week, on Thursday, December 5, at 4pm in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John W. Kluge Center will hold a discussion marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Hope M. Harrison and Constanze Stelzenmüller will take part in a discussion moderated by Kluge Center Director John Haskell on the history of the wall itself, why it fell, and how German reunification impacts today’s politics and the future of democracy.

The event is free, but due to expected demand, tickets are recommended. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed.

Register for a ticket here.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Whistleblowing in Historical Context: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Get your free tickets here.

On Tuesday, January 14, at 4pm, in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John W. Kluge Center will hold a discussion on whistleblowing, featuring perspectives from the realms of medical research, national security, and congressional committees.

The panel will feature Carl Elliott, professor in the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota and current Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History, Allison Stanger, professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, and Emilia DiSanto, former Deputy Inspector General to the U.S. Department of State and Chief Investigative Counsel and Special Counsel to the Senate Committee on Finance. Kluge Center Director John Haskell will moderate.

A reception will follow the discussion.

The event is free, but tickets are recommended. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed.

Register for a ticket here.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Join Us for a Kluge Center Author Salon with Susan Schneider on Artificial Intelligence

Get your free tickets here.

On Thursday January 30, at 4pm in the Montpelier Room of the Madison Building, the John W. Kluge Center will hold a discussion with Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation Susan Schneider.

Schneider will discuss her new book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, which is an exploration of what artificial intelligence can, and cannot, achieve.

Humans may not be Earth’s most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy! are now all AIs. Given the rapid pace of progress in AI, many predict that it could advance to human-level intelligence within the next several decades. From there, it could quickly outpace human intelligence. What do these developments mean for the future of the mind?

In Artificial You, Susan Schneider says that it is inevitable that AI will take intelligence in new directions, but urges that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path forward. As AI technology turns inward, reshaping the brain, as well as outward, potentially creating machine minds, it is crucial to beware. Homo sapiens, as mind designers, will be playing with “tools” they do not understand how to use: the self, the mind, and consciousness. Schneider argues that an insufficient grasp of the nature of these entities could undermine the use of AI and brain enhancement technology, bringing about the demise or suffering of conscious beings. To flourish, we must grasp the philosophical issues lying beneath the algorithms.

Schneider will discuss these topics and more, with a reception to follow.

The event is free, but tickets are recommended. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed.

Register for a ticket here.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Join Us for a Kluge Center Author Salon with Ivan Krastev on The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy.

Get your free tickets here.

On Wednesday, February 19, at 4pm in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, former Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations Ivan Krastev will speak about his new book on Europe’s past, present, and future.

In this insightful work of political history (shortlisted for the prestigious Lionel Gelber Prize), Krastev and co-author Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of Communism turned out to be only the beginning of the age of the autocrat. Reckoning with the history of the last thirty years, they show that the most powerful force behind the wave of populist xenophobia that began in Eastern Europe stems from resentment at the post-1989 imperative to become Westernized.

A reception will follow the discussion.

Get your free tickets here.

The event is free, but tickets are recommended. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Join the John W. Kluge Center for an Author Salon with Fergus M. Bordewich on Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America.

Get your free tickets here.

On March 10, 2020, at 4pm in room LJ-119 of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Fergus M. Bordewich will be interviewed by Becky Brasington Clark, director of the Library of Congress Publishing Office about the role of Congress during the Civil War.

A reception will follow the discussion.

Get your free tickets here.

The event is free, but tickets are recommended. Visit the event ticketing site for more information and to secure your ticket. Entry is not guaranteed.

Questions? Please contact (202) 707-9219 or scholarly@loc.gov

Applications are now open for the Library of Congress Fellowship in Congressional Policymaking.

Negotiation is vital to public policymaking in the U.S. Congress. In fact, legislative productivity is dependent on effective legislative negotiations, given the complexities of our system of separated branches with a bicameral legislature.

 In an effort to support scholarship in this area, the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress invites qualified scholars to apply for a post-doctoral fellowship in the field of congressional policymaking, with a special focus on legislative negotiations.

Apply here. And check the fellowship requirements and eligibility information here.

The application deadline is currently set for June 15, but we will be revisiting this deadline as the COVID-19 situation develops. Please respond to this email if you are currently applying or interested in applying for this fellowship and are having trouble meeting the deadline. Kluge staff will be in touch with you.

The fellowship program is made possible by generous support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

In the Know

A Newsletter of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress

We at the Kluge Center extend our heartfelt support for all affected by this outbreak and recognize the need for connection in these difficult times. In that spirit, we introduce this newsletter to our supporters and friends who may be missing the intellectual stimulation of our panel discussions and author salons. Below please find helpful links to resources for viewing past discussions, blog posts, and updates for current fellowship applications. We will also use this newsletter to announce upcoming events. If you know others who may also be interested in our activities, please forward this email their way. As always, the Kluge Center remains committed to bringing the best in publicly engaged conversations your way. Be well, and let’s keep the conversation going.

JH, Director

Insights: The Kluge Center’s Blog

It’s a great time to check out the Kluge Center’s blog. We’ve recently published a Women’s History Month look at scholars in residence, an interview with a scholar of the history of energy security and energy policy in the US, and one post in which several scholars shared their most interesting recent finds at the Library.

Fellowship Applications:

We are still processing fellowship applications, and will be assessing whether deadline extensions are appropriate. Please respond to this email if you are currently applying or interested in applying for a fellowship and are having trouble meeting the deadline. Kluge staff will be in touch with you.

Currently open applications:

Kluge Staff Fellowship
Updated Deadline: May 1

Philip Lee Phillips Society Fellowship
Current Deadline: April 15

David B. Larson Fellowship in Health and Spirituality
Current Deadline: May 1

Library of Congress Fellowship in Congressional Policymaking
Current Deadline: June 15

Events:

Public events are currently postponed. Watch this space for updates as we continue monitoring the situation and decide when it is appropriate to begin scheduling in-person public events. In the meantime, dozens of videos of our past events are available on the Library of Congress Youtube.

Social Media:

Be sure to follow our Twitter account to get all the latest on our blog posts, open applications, and any future events.

We Want to Hear From You:

Do you have thoughts on what would make an interesting blog post? What about an idea for event programming when public events are back up and running? Please reply to this email or contact Andrew Breiner at abreiner@loc.gov.

Applications are now open for Kluge Fellowships at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Twelve Kluge Fellowships are awarded each year through a competitive selection process. Kluge Fellowships are offered for a period of four to eleven months.

Since the inception of the Kluge Center, dozens of Kluge Fellows have gone on to distinguished academic careers; many have made lasting contributions as public intellectuals. Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research is particularly welcome in the Kluge Fellowship program. The fellowship is open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences with special consideration given to those whose projects demonstrate relevance to contemporary challenges.

Apply here. And check the fellowship requirements and eligibility information here.

The application deadline is currently set for July 15. Please email scholarly@loc.gov if you are applying for this fellowship and having trouble meeting the deadline due to the crisis surrounding the covid-19 epidemic. Kluge staff will be in touch with you.

On May 13, join the John W. Kluge Center for the first in our Conversations on the Future of Democracy series featuring Yuval Levin, who will be discussing his new book, A Time to Build, a look at the critical importance of formative institutions in society, their deterioration in recent decades, and practical steps to begin addressing the problem.

Find the event on May 13 at the Library’s showcase for everything you can access while the doors are closed: Library of Congress: Engage!

And sign up for a free ticket to get a reminder when the event happens.

Yuval Levin is a distinguished scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies. Levin is also the editor-in-chief of National Affairs.

Also, we’ve got a packed schedule of virtual events lined up, so stay tuned for more.

Art of Living teacher Swami Sadyojathah talks about the trauma relief programme he conducted for Sri Lanka's terror-hit cricket team and the secret to healthy living.

Harbhajan reflects on the year that was, the secret behind India's recent successes and the upcoming Indian Premier League.

Ajinkya Rahane talks about his recent successes, the recent trip to the Rainbow Nation, interactions with Jonty Rhodes and Shaun Pollock and, of course, his idol Sachin Tendulkar.

The 17-year-old boy committed suicide in Gurugram`s upscale building after a girl made serious allegations against him on Instagram.

The Assam government has taken several crucial decisions in its Cabinet meeting including increasing the excise duty on liquor by 25 percent."In the Cabinet, we took several decisions which included increasing the excise duty on liquor by 25 percent.

Giving a big relief to parents during the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, the Maharashtra Education Department has announced that there will be no hike in school fees in the academic year 2020-21.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday (May 9) stressed on the need to understand the "chemistry of corona while administering its treatment".

The situation in the valley, which has been witnessing lockdown since the third week of March due to COVID-19 pandemic, was generally calm barring a few local protests in some villages of Pulwama in south Kashmir.

The incident took place even as state Director General of Police DG Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy.

Almost five days after the encounter operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Handwara that claimed lives of five security personnel including a decorate officer, the Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen, headed by Syed Salahuddin, has reportedly claimed the responsibility.

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