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TANNER LECTURES
SPEAKER: HAHRIE HAN, INAUGURAL DIRECTOR OF THE SNF AGORA INSTITUTE, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Respondent: Doran Schrantz
Lecture Two: From Belonging to Building
What will it take to reinvigorate democratic self-governance—or people-powered democracy—in the United States? In a time of complex and contentious debates about the state of American democracy, these lectures interrogate the way people and communities do (and do not) practice democracy, with a particular focus on Christian faith communities in America, and the relationship of faith, race, and politics. The first lecture examines core principles that shape possibilities for self-governance, focusing on how we understand what we can become together when we work with each other. The second lecture examines the conditions necessary for that kind of transformation to occur, focusing on the ways people belong to each other, and data on places people have organized to build something new.
"Belonging to Building" is the second of two Tanner Lectures by Hahrie Han. For information on the first Tanner Lecture, click here.
About the Speakers
Hahrie Han is the Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University. She specializes in the study of organizing, movements, collective action, and democracy, and is an award-winning author of four books and numerous articles. Her most recent book, Prisms of the People (University of Chicago Press, 2021) was awarded the 2022 Michael Harrington Book Award from the American Political Science Association for “scholarship contributing to the struggle for a better world.” Her other work has been published in leading scholarly outlets including the American Political Science Review, the American Sociological Review, Nature Human Behavior, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and elsewhere, and she has written for public outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was named a 2022 Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year by the World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation. She is currently working on a fifth book, to be published with Knopf (an imprint of Penguin Random House), about faith and race in America, with a particular focus on evangelical megachurches.
Doran Schrantz was the long-time, founding Executive Director of ISAIAH and Faith in Minnesota, a state-wide, multi-racial, state-wide, grassroots membership organizations comprised of community-based institutions such as mosques, churches, childcare centers, college campuses and Barbershops/Beautyshops. Ms. Schrantz has been at the center of ISAIAH’s development from a small, more locally focused organization to an organization that is nationally recognized and considered one of the most powerful and influential voices in the state of Minnesota. Under her leadership, ISAIAH also acts as a host and catalyst to many wider coalitions and campaigns and strategic capacities for the progressive field; such as the We Choose Us Campaign, with 34 pro-democracy organizations and We Make MN, a faith, labor and community coalition fighting for progressive revenue and expanding the public sector. Most recently, ISAIAH/FiMN was pivotal in the most historic state legislative session since the 1930s passing signature legislation such as 100% clean energy by 2030. Paid Family and Medical Leave, Restore the Vote and automatic voter registration, pro-union and labor policy and historic investments in education, childcare, transportation and a more progressive tax code. ISAIAH also acts as a host to many wider coalitions and campaigns such as the We Choose Us Campaign, with 34 pro-democracy organizations and We Make MN, a faith, labor and community coalition fighting for progressive revenue and expanding the public sector.
Doran is currently acting as Senior Advisor to ISAIAH, Chair of Faith In Minnesota PAC, the founder and creator of a state-based organizing and training lab that has worked with over 100 state-based, community power building organizations, an acting consultant with Community Building Strategies, Chair of the Board of The State Power Fund and Taconic Fellow with Community Change.
About the Series
In collaboration with the Office of the President of Harvard University, the Mahindra Humanities Center hosts annual Tanner Lectures on Human Values. The purpose of the Tanner Lectures is the advancement of scholarly and scientific learning in the field of human values. That purpose embraces the entire range of moral, artistic, intellectual, and spiritual values, both individual and social – the full register of values pertinent to the human condition, interest, behavior, and aspiration.
The Tanner Lectures on Human Values is a nonprofit corporation administered at the University of Utah. They are funded by an endowment and other gifts received by the University of Utah from Obert Clark Tanner and Grace Adams Tanner. More information: www.tannerlectures.utah.edu.