Roundtable: America 250 and British Studies

Event Title: Roundtable: America 250 and British Studies

Event Date: August 27, 11 AM ET

Event Description:

In this moderated roundtable, three experts reflect on the United States at 250 in the contexts of British Studies, commemorations on both sides of the Atlantic, and recent politicized attacks on public history. 

Participants: 

Holly Brewer

Holly Brewer is the Burke Professor of American History & Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. She is the author of By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority (Omohundro Institute and UNC Press, 2007), as well as articles including "Creating a Common Law of Slavery for England and its New World Empire" (Law & History Review, 2021) and "Slavery, Sovereignty and 'Inheritable Blood': Reconsidering John Locke and the Origins of American Slavery" (American Historical Review, 2017). Her new book, The King's Slaves: The British Empire and the Origins of American Slavery (Princeton Univ. Press), is forthcoming in January 2027.

Lorri Glover

Lorri Glover is the John Francis Bannon Endowed Chair in the History Department at Saint Louis University. Her books include Founders as Fathers: The Private Lives and Politics of the American Revolutionaries (Yale Univ. Press, 2014); The Fate of the Revolution: Virginians Debate the Constitution (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2016); and Eliza Lucas Pinckney: An Independent Woman in the Age of Revolution (Yale Univ. Press, 2020). Glover has served as president of both the Southern Association for Women Historians and the Southern Historical Association.

Henry Wilkinson

Henry Wilkinson holds a BA, MA and PGCE in History from the University of Cambridge and is currently Head of Education at Benjamin Franklin House, an 18th century historic house in London and the world's only surviving Franklin residence. Since 2021, he has led a multi-award-winning education program, delivering learning opportunities to over 15,000 young people at nearly 250 schools across the UK. He specializes in 18^th-century British America, the history of London, and the life and legacy of Benjamin Franklin. He also serves on the Learning Advisory Panel at Historic Houses as an Advisor, providing expert guidance on heritage education and management for over 1400 member sites.