Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen "is a scholar whose intellectual scope spans the fields of the classics, philosophy, and political theory. Her book The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens examines the theory and practice of punishment in classical Athens as it affected both the intellectual elite and ordinary citizens. Allen weaves evidence from legal statutes and court speeches with contemporaneous literary and philosophical documents to explore the challenges posed by punishment to democratic Athenian politics and society.

"Allen's work contributes new perspectives to discussions of race and politics that go well beyond the confines of traditional and canonical scholarship. Her latest book, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education, combines brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago. By doing so, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship that she hopes can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us.

"A 2001 MacArthur Fellow, Allen is a professor in the University of Chicago's departments of the classics and political science and in the Committee on Social Thought. She received a B.A. from Princeton University, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Allen is the author of numerous articles on topics ranging from ancient poetry to Plato to bees to Ralph Ellison and September 11. She joined the Institute for Advanced Study in 2007.

"Danielle Allen joined the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2006."


 * Board Member, Pulitzer Prize