PAST EVENTS
2023 – 2024: Cities in Historical Perspective
The series of panels and talks examined topics such as the problem of race and class in the American city, as well as historical perspectives on European cities, port cities, postcolonial cities, immigration and cities, Chinatown in Philadelphia, and memory in Philadelphia. The Center also hosted one-off events featuring speculative fiction, videogames, baseball, and and oral history in Ukraine.
2022 – 2023: Climate Change in Historical Perspective
The Climate Change in Historical Perspective series offered robust discussions on how climate change affects and overlaps with scholarship and advocacy, policies of denial, justice, global security, refugees, migration, and more in the hopes of better equipping the Lepage public with the tools to understand the causes, consequences, and possible remedies of climate change.
- Climate Change in Historical Perspective: Historians, Scholarship, and Advocacy
- Our planet is not doomed. That means we can, and must, act by Dagomar Degroot in The Washington Post
- DagomarDegroot.com
- Climate Change in Historical Perspective: Scientific, Corporate, and Political Denial
- Climate Change in Historical Perspective: Climate Justice Movements
- Climate Change and the Global Security Landscape
- Navigating Breakup: Security Realities of Freezing Politics and Thawing Landscapes in the Arctic by Marisol Maddox at The Wilson Center
- Climate Change, Refugees, and Migration
- Climate Change and Cities
- Climate Miseducation: An Evening With Award-Winning Journalist and Author Katie Worth
- Exxon Scientists Predicted Global Warming, Even as Company Cast Doubts from The New York Times
- Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America by Katie Worth
- Subverting Climate Science in the Classroom by Katie Worth in Scientific American
- We Did Start the Fire by Katie Worth for This American Life
- Award-Winning Interactives With PBS FRONTLINE
- The Gospel of Climate Skepticism by Robin Globus Veldman
2021 – 2022: Turning Points in History
The Turning Points in History series offered discussions about contemporary global crises and moments of transition in historical perspective to deepen public understanding of the world around us.
2020 – 2021: Decolonizing History
Decolonization may be familiar to some as a description of twentieth-century political movements that sought to overthrow European empires. But in recent years the word has come to acquire broader meanings in social and cultural debates, addressing concerns across society where the legacies of colonialism may still reside. It’s with that definition in mind that the Lepage Center presented a series of events examining what it might mean to “decolonize” the practice of history itself.
2019 – 2020: Revisionist History
"Revisionist History" can be a controversial term, and sometimes carries negative connotations. The goal in this series was to show how revision is critical to all historical scholarship, and how new events and new sources continually challenge us to re-think what we know about the past.
2018 – 2019: Histories of Democracy
Are we facing a crisis of democracy? By digging into the diverse histories of democracy, in the United States and around the world, the Lepage Center offers a chance to explore the promises and shortcomings of democracy.
2017 – 2018: Fake News and Fake History; Endless War
Changes in politics, education, media, technology, and notions of trust and authority all play a role in "fake news." Examining the historical changes over time can reveal better ways of understanding our current moment and devising solutions. The Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest held a roundtable discussion on “fake news” and “fake history” during its first-ever event in fall 2017. In spring 2018, the Center hosted a discussion on "Endless War."