The 29th Annual Abraham Lincoln Institute Symposium
Saturday, March 21, 2026
Book signings will take place in the Ford’s Theatre lobby throughout the day.
Symposium Speaker Panels:
Paths to the Civil War
The conversation will feature a discussion between Edda Fields-Black of Carnegie Mellon University, the author of a 2025 Pulitzer Prize and Lincoln Prize winning book COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War, and Richard Carwardine of Oxford University, the author of a new book Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union, which also won the 2025 Lincoln Prize from the Lincoln Forum. This panel will be moderated by Steve Inskeep of NPR News.
Lincoln and the Declaration’s Promise of Equality
This panel will feature Akhil Amar of Yale Law School, author of a new book Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920 in conversation with Lucas Morel of Washington and Lee University, author of Lincoln and the American Founding (2020) and Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln (2025). Professor Amar will also receive our 2026 book prize that day. This conversation will be moderated by Jeff Rosen, CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center and Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School.
Lincoln and Democracy in the Past, Present, and Future
The panel will feature Annette Gordon-Reed, a Harvard Law professor and the Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of the book The Hemingses of Monticello in conversation with Richard Brookhiser, the author of Founder’s Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln. The conversation will be moderated by Judy Woodruff, the former host of the PBS NewsHour and now the host of a program on America at a Crossroads.
Lincoln, the Declaration, and Civic Life Today
The fourth and final panel will feature a discussion with David Rubenstein and our six invited speakers on the subject “Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration of Independence, and the State of Civic Life Today.” Rubenstein is CEO of the Carlyle Group, principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, and chairman of the National Gallery of Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Rubenstein is a long-time supporter of historic endeavors and published Abraham Lincoln: His Life in Print.
Musical Guest
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason will perform “Ashokan Farewell.”
*Symposium Speaker Panels are subject to change.
The 29th Annual Abraham Lincoln Institute Symposium Book Award
Akhil Reed Amar
Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840–1920
Watch Previous Year’s Speeches
Sponsors
Attendees to the Abraham Lincoln Institute Symposium may stay at Riggs hotel for a discounted rate.