America’s Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to Speak at Assumption University
Assumption University today announced that it will host Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on campus this spring. Sponsored by the Center for Civic Friendship as its first major public event, Goodwin will join the Assumption community for Team of Rivals: Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln. The evening of conversation will be hosted in the Curtis Performance Hall on Thursday, March 26 at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Goodwin has penned several New York Times bestselling books about presidents across history, including The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, from which this event takes its name and subject. Team of Rivals also inspired Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film “Lincoln.”
While there are many efforts to encourage civil dialogue on campuses, Assumption’s Center for Civic Friendship is taking a unique approach. Rooted in the Augustinian value of friendship, its premise is that there is a unique friendship common to citizens and based on shared goals. Those who share goals trust one another to engage in candid and productive conversation. By cultivating that friendship, we can make civic conversation not only polite but also productive.
In addition to the public conversation, Goodwin will spend time in dialogue with the center’s inaugural Civic Friendship Scholars—a cohort of ten outstanding students h from across the nation and world, including Uganda, the Dominican Republic, and the Czech Republic, to learn and serve at the center, with each receiving a $10,000-per year scholarship.
Goodwin’s public conversation with President Greg Weiner will examine the themes of civic friendship through her scholarship on Lincoln. Weiner has published nationally on the topic, including a 2024 Washington Post op-ed that posed civic friendship as a potential bridge across the divisive political bitterness in the country today.
“Our ambition is as large as the urgency: The Center for Civic Friendship at Assumption University will be a national resource for cultivating the friendship of citizens,” said Weiner. “We are honored to welcome Doris Kearns Goodwin to our campus as we begin that national effort. In the role she has cultivated as America’s historian, Dr. Goodwin has inspired our cultural consciousness through unflinchingly pragmatic, yet hopeful, views into what it means to model our highest virtues even and especially during dire circumstances.”
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About Assumption University
Assumption University, founded in 1904 by the Augustinians of the Assumption, is a premier New England university for high-quality education, integrating career preparation and education of the whole person, drawing upon the best in the rich and centuries-long tradition of Catholic higher education. Assumption’s graduates are known for their intellectual seriousness, thoughtful citizenship, and devotion to the common good. The University offers 37 majors and 49 minors in the liberal arts, sciences, business, nursing, professional studies, and other areas, as well as graduate degrees and professional credentials. For more information about Assumption University, please visit assumption.edu or follow us @AssumptionUMA.