Winant Lecture in American Government

The Winant Lecture in American Government is given every February by the John G. Winant Visiting Professor of American Government in an area related to their research. The Winant Chair is affiliated with Balliol College and commemorates John Gilbert Winant, who served as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1941-46.

The titles of past Winant Lectures are listed below. Links to recordings are included where available.

Past Winant Lectures

2024-25: The End of Black Politics (Kimberley Johnson)

2023-24: Shifting Allegiances: The Election of Latino Republicans to Congress and State Legislatures (Jason P. Casellas)

2022-23: no lecture (Lawrie Balfour)

2021-22: The Politics of American Islamophobia (Nazita Lajevardi)

2020-21: The American Civil Rights State: The Role of Federal Power in the Pursuit of Racial Justice (Robert C. Lieberman)

2019-20: Race and the Problem of the Public in Postwar America (Margaret Weir)

2018-19: Has American Democracy Outstripped Its Institutional Foundations? Principles Without Traction in 21st Century Governance (Stephen Skowronek)

2017-18: Politics after God (David Sehat)

2016-17: Joining the Revolution: Lyndon Johnson, the Modern Presidency and the Civil Rights Movement (Sidney M. Milkis)

2015-16: American Exceptionalism? Race, Crime and Democracy in the United States (Lisa L. Miller)

2014-15: Party Balance, Partisan Polarization, and Policy Conflict: The Evolution of American Politics, 1932–2014 (Byron E. Shafer)

2013-14: Avatar of Reform: LBJ and the Great Society (Randall Woods)

2012-13: Explaining Obama: Strategic Assessments and Presidential Leadership (George C. Edwards III)

2011-12: A Politicized Economy: Obama, the Republicans and the Future of the U.S. Political Economy (Michael Bailey)

2010-11: The Politics of Belief and American Health Care Reform (Joseph White) and The Case Against Dramatising Genocide (Alan Wolfe)

2009-10: Interpreting American Political Change: From Stability to Dealignment to Polarization: The Role of Party Pursuits, 1950–2010 and American Ideological Divisions: Playing by the Rules versus Changing the Rules (Jeffrey Stonecash)

2008-09: The Obama Administration: Strategies and Constraints (Joel Aberbach)