School of Public Policy Receives $1 Million Grant for "America and the World" Speaker Series and Research Project

In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States, the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy has received a $1 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to launch “America and the World: 250 Years of US Leadership in Foreign Affairs,” a major humanities-centered speaker series and research effort.

“Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy is committed to advancing scholarship that informs public leadership and democratic governance,” says Pete Peterson (MPP '07), dean of the School of Public Policy. “By placing humanities scholarship at the forefront of national commemoration, the project will affirm the continued relevance and importance of civic education, public discourse, and global understanding.” 

With programming in Malibu, California, and Washington, DC, the bicoastal nature of the grant forges a bridge between academic scholarship and policy practice. Throughout the semiquincentennial, a year of national celebration and reflection, the initiative will convene leading scholars, diplomats, policymakers, historians, and practitioners to explore how the United States has shaped—and been shaped by—global engagement since the nation’s founding two and a half centuries ago. 

Public lectures and moderated discussions grounded in historical scholarship, political philosophy, cultural studies, and public memory are designed to foster rigorous dialogue about America’s role in the world. 

Leading the strategic vision and material for the partnership is Kiron Skinner, the founding director of the University’s new Institute for Diplomacy, Security, and Innovation and Taube Family Chair of International Relations and Politics. 

“I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for entrusting Pepperdine University with the responsibility of national programming and rigorous research on the foreign policy dimensions of America's founding,” stated Skinner.  “My School of Public Policy colleagues and I look forward to elevating the global examination of America throughout its 250 years.”