Are We Created Equal? (A Beyond 250 Conversation)

Beyond 250 conversations celebrate 250 years of American independence by bringing Oregonians together to talk about democracy, freedom, and what it means to be an American - today and into the future. Join us for a reflective conversation, titled Are We Created Equal?, with Adam Davis, the executive director of Oregon Humanities since 2013.

About this conversation: This conversation will explore equality. It is a core national value of the United States, even if we have not always lived up to that value. What does it mean to say, as the writers of the Declaration of Independence did, that “all men are created equal” and to declare that this is a self-evident truth? In what ways are or should we be equal? How does this ideal of equality show up in our daily lives, our communities, and our politics? How, finally, has this ideal of equality changed over the past 250 years—and how might it change further over the next 250?

About Adam Davis: Adam Davis has been the executive director of Oregon Humanities since 2013. Prior to joining Oregon Humanities, Davis directed the Center for Civic Reflection and edited Taking Action, Hearing the Call across Traditions, and The Civically Engaged Reader. Davis has led hundreds of community conversations and trained thousands of discussion leaders across the country in partnership with social service, educational, nonprofit, and medical organizations. He has taught philosophy and literature for many years in the Clemente Course in the Humanities, a college program for adults living on low incomes. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and used to lead wilderness trail crews in the Pacific Northwest.

This event is co-sponsored by Oregon Humanities and the Friends & Foundation of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library.