Tanner Lecture on Human Values at Yale University – “Government by Machine” and “What Robots Want”

Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 4:30 pm Humanities Quadrangle (HQ) L02 Lecture 1 | Government by Machine Jill Lepore’s 2026 Tanner Lectures on Human Values are an inquiry into what humans mean and intend—to think what we are doing—in abandoning constitutional democracy and the liberal nation-state for rule by automation and government by machine. Much […]

Abolition: Transforming Fields and and Disciplines

HENRY ADAMS: THE HISTORIAN AS NOVELIST

GARRY L. WILLS is adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University. He was educated at St. Louis University and at Xavier, and received a Ph.D. from Yale. He has taught at a number of universities and institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Union College, the University of Edinburgh, Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, Princeton, and […]

Spirit Visions

Marina Warner is a historian, novelist, and critic who lives in London. She has been a Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and the University of York, among others.

I Mendacity Enforced: Europe, 1914-1989 II Freedom and Its Discontents: Postunification Germany

On Beauty and Being Just

Elaine Scarry is Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value in the department of English at Harvard University. She was educated at Chatham College and at the University of Connecticut, where she received her Ph.D. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been […]

Step Across This Line

SALMAN RUSHDIE was born in Bombay, India, and is considered one of the most distinguished living writers of English. He is known as a spokesman for artistic freedoms against religious absolutism; he drew world attention after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses resulted in a fatwa, or death order, being placed against him […]

Why Food Matters

Ruth Reichl is editor in chief of Gourmet magazine. She received both B.A. and M.A. degrees in the history of art at the University of Michigan. She has been a restaurant critic for New West and California magazines and was a restaurant critic and food editor for the Los Angeles Times. She later worked for […]

Euthanasia and Health Care: Two Essays on the Policy Dilemmas of Aging and Old Age

RICHARD A. POSNER is Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He was educated at Yale University and graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as law clerk to Justice William Brennan, legal assistant to Commissioner Philip […]

Edward Gibbon in History: Aspects of the Text in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

J. G. A. POCOCK holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the University of New Zealand, a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Canterbury. He has been Professor of Political Science at the University of Canterbury, a Professor of History and Political Science at Washington University in […]