2025 Annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture: Democracy in Distress
The 2025 Berlin Lecture will be delivered by Dr Amy Gutmann, Christopher H Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, School of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

From the perspective of a life-long academic who became U.S. Ambassador to Germany, I offer reflections on my diplomatic experience and how it illuminates major threats to American democracy and our allies today. As the only survivor of a generation of German Jews, I also reflect personally on how my own family’s trajectory is a story of the destructive weight of autocracy, the redeeming power of democracy, and the urgency of this perilous moment in history. In conclusion, I offer three broad strategies—requiring civic courage, sooner not later—to reverse the potential demise of democracy and to protect the people democracy must serve to survive.

www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/event/2025-berlin-lecture
Date: 22 May 2025, 18:00
Venue: Wolfson College, Linton Road OX2 6UD
Venue Details: Leonard Wolfson Auditorium, and online
Speaker: Dr Amy Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania)
Organising department: Wolfson College
Part of: The Isaiah Berlin Lectures
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Belinda Clark