The Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy hosted “America at 250: A View from Australia, France & Italy,” the first event of their spring Global 250 Lecture Series, on Friday, Jan. 30, at the Tiger Hotel.
The event, which was open to the public, welcomed Mario Del Pero, an Italian history professor at Paris’ Sciences Po, and Tamson Pietsch, director of the Australian Centre for Public History at University of Technology Sydney. The two sat down with Billy Coleman, associate director of the Kinder Institute, to give their insights on American history and the current state of the nation.
The lecture was the first of seven that will be hosted this semester to honor the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.
Mason Andrews, a graduate student in Kinder’s Atlantic History and Politics Cohort, said that celebrating America by focusing on other nations’ perspectives helps people gain a more holistic view of the United States’ impact and identity.
“It’s important if we’re gonna understand the legacy of the United States to understand it from a global perspective, and that taking that global perspective can highlight things that are really easily lost otherwise,” Andrews said. “I think, you know, in certain ways, this first “America at 250” event did a good job of illuminating just how unique our understandings of America can be when we get outside its borders.”
Throughout the event, Del Pero and Pietsch touched on the intersecting histories of their nations, but the discussion wasn’t strictly academic. The speakers shared their own anecdotes about America, mentioning their personal experiences with exchange years and Sesame Street.
For Coleman, the series’ power lies in its focus on these kinds of details and not just greater stories of foreign affairs.
“The idea of sort of a global perspective is often actually experienced personally through, like, particular connections between people across borders and not necessarily the kind of amorphous experience of the whole globe at once,” Coleman said.
Del Pero and Pietsch also discussed current events and their perspectives on America’s future. Questions from attendees presented a common theme of attempting to find hope during times of instability.
For Andrews, the sense of chaos that seemed heavy on the minds of those at the lecture is a poignant reminder of what the anniversary truly represents.
“I think America’s 250th anniversary, or the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, coming about in a period of profound instability and democratic turmoil, is something of a reminder that the things we’re celebrating, you know, don’t just come about for nothing, right?” Andrews said. “These are things that people worked and fought for, and we know that not only because people worked and fought for them 250 years ago, but because people are working and fighting for them today.”
The next lecture in the series will feature Erika Pani from El Colegio de México and will take place 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13, at the Tiger Hotel. All lectures are free, and seating is granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
