Drew Gilpin Faust

Lore & Background

Drew Gilpin Faust was born in New York City and raised in Clarke County, Virginia. She earned a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1968, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was published as A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840–1860 (1977). She joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1975 and became Walter Annenberg Professor of History. Her book Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (1996) won the Francis Parkman Prize and the Avery O. Craven Award. This Republic of Suffering (2008) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

In 2001, Faust was appointed the first dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. On February 8, 2007, she was selected as the next president of Harvard, succeeding Lawrence Summers. During her presidency, she significantly increased financial aid, testified before Congress for scientific research funding, worked to internationalize Harvard, and advocated for sustainability. She oversaw the installation of a commemorative plaque honoring enslaved people whose labor was exploited by the institution. Faust retired as Harvard president in June 2018 and joined the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs four days later.

Reader's Guide

Drew Gilpin Faust's significance lies in her dual role as a leading historian of the American South and the Civil War, and as a transformative university president who broke gender barriers at Harvard. Her scholarship, particularly on the intellectual history of the Old South and the impact of Civil War death, reshaped understanding of 19th-century America. As Harvard's first female president, she expanded access to higher education through financial aid reforms, promoted sustainability, and addressed the university's historical ties to slavery. Her leadership during a period of economic downturn and faculty departures was marked by both achievements and controversies, including criticism over her refusal to accept a pay cut during layoffs. Her legacy includes fostering internationalization and the arts at Harvard, and her subsequent memoir reflects on her own awakening to the Civil Rights movement.

Did You Know?

• Faust was Harvard's first president since 1672 without a Harvard undergraduate or graduate degree.
• She was the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
• Her book This Republic of Suffering was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.
• In 2011, she signed an agreement to restore the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program at Harvard after nearly 40 years.

Origins and Stated Mission

The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities was launched in 1972 under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and it quickly established itself as what the NEH describes as the most prestigious federal recognition for intellectual work in the humanities field. Each year, a twenty-six-member citizen advisory board known as the National Council on the Humanities is responsible for choosing the honoree. The selected individual then travels to Washington, D.C., typically around the time of the council's spring gathering, to deliver a public address and collect a ten-thousand-dollar honorarium. The program's guiding principle is twofold: it seeks to honor someone whose scholarly contributions in the humanities have been genuinely significant, while also valuing the person's capacity to translate that specialized knowledge into language and ideas that resonate with a wide, non-specialist audience. The very first recipient in 1972 was the literary critic Lionel Trilling, who chose to explore the theme of "Mind in the Modern World," arguing that humanistic thought had become the primary engine of social progress rather than the scientific method that Jefferson himself had championed.

Political Storms and Institutional Backlash

The year 2000 brought the lecture series into the crosshairs of a fierce public dispute. NEH chairman William R. Ferris initially named sitting President Bill Clinton as the honoree, hoping to create a standing tradition in which every president would deliver the address during their term and to broaden public engagement with the humanities. The move triggered immediate pushback. Leaders of the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Humanities Alliance warned that injecting political considerations into the selection process was inappropriate and without precedent. Former NEH chairman William J. Bennett, a conservative Republican who had served under Ronald Reagan, went further, accusing Clinton of corrupting everyone around him. Under the weight of that criticism, Clinton stepped aside, with a White House spokesperson explaining that he did not want the Endowment's work to be "called into question." Historian James M. McPherson ultimately received the 2000 honor and delivered what was described as a very well-received address. In the aftermath, the NEH amended its selection criteria to place greater weight on public speaking ability and broad audience appeal. The controversy was not isolated; the following year, playwright Arthur Miller's lecture drew sharp attacks from conservative commentators who questioned both his political content and whether he qualified as a true scholar.

A Roster That Defies a Single Discipline

One of the most striking features of the Jefferson Lecture is the extraordinary breadth of its honorees, spanning fields that have little obvious overlap. The series has welcomed literary critics, scientists, bioethicists, novelists, journalists, political philosophers, playwrights, actors, and even filmmakers. In 2013, director Martin Scorsese became the first filmmaker to receive the distinction, using his platform to discuss the evolution of his body of work, the craft of storytelling, and the ways the humanities have shaped his creative inspiration. That same spirit of cross-disciplinary recognition was visible when bioethicist Leon Kass, in 2009, argued that modern science had drifted away from its humanistic roots and that the humanities had lost their tether to metaphysical and theological questions. The NEH marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2016 by selecting documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, while in 2017, University of Chicago professor Martha Nussbaum delivered a talk titled "Powerlessness and the Politics of Blame." More recent selections include author Walter Isaacson in 2014, playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith in 2015, and journalist Tom Wolfe at another point in the series' history. The 2024/25 honoree is Sam Mihara, with Ruth R. Wisse slated for 2026.

From Podium to Page: The Lectures as Published Works

Several Jefferson Lectures have transcended their one-time performance to become lasting written works. Gerald Holton's early address evolved into the book "The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens." Historian John Hope Franklin's lecture was published as "Racial Equality in America," and Henry Louis Gates Jr. turned his into "The Trials of Phillis Wheatley." Jaroslav Pelikan's contribution became "The Vindication of Tradition." Novelist John Updike's 2008 talk, which focused on American art in a nod to the NEH's Picturing America arts initiative, was later included in his posthumous 2012 collection "Always Looking." Perhaps the most consequential transformation belonged to Bernard Lewis, whose 1990 lecture on "Western Civilization: A View from the East" was revised and reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly under the title "The Roots of Muslim Rage." According to at least one source, that lecture and the resulting article were responsible for first introducing the phrase "Islamic fundamentalism" to a North American readership, giving a new term a wide public platform through the prestige of the Jefferson Lecture series.

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