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Join a community of scholars, writers, and artists to explore the origins and current state of democracy during the 2026 Night of Ideas.
The US celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, offering a moment to reflect on one of the world’s boldest experiments in democracy. The ideas first expressed in 1776—liberty, equality, and government by the people—have inspired many nations, even as they have been challenged over time. Today, as people around the globe show both frustration with democratic systems and a renewed desire to protect them, we face important questions about the future. What can we learn from the country’s past, and how do those lessons connect with experiences globally? Can democracy still meet the needs of the 21st century?
Organized by Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, the Night of Ideas (La nuit des idées) is a dynamic annual event happening in cities around the world aimed at fostering dialogue on urgent global issues. This year’s event at Ohio State brings together scholars, writers, artists, and community members to explore the Enlightenment ideals that shaped democracies in the US and France—such as reason and the rule of law, freedom of expression, progress, and equal access to education and culture—and the current landscape of democracy.
The event connects with two major exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts—Naeem Mohaiemen: Corinthians and Hew Locke: Passages—which examine how history is remembered and how power is represented. Together, the Night of Ideas and these exhibitions invite the public to consider who democracy serves, how it is shaped, and how art can help us understand the challenges we face today.
2:30–9 PMDoors open at 2 PM
Talking to Strangers: The Circulation of Democratic Ideas in the Eighteenth Century PressBefore the French Revolution began, people were already talking about change, and the newspaper was one of the liveliest sites of such conversations. Elizabeth Andrews Bond discusses how most of the changes that people imagined and wrote about in letters to the editor were incremental ones that fit the scale of their own lives and experiences. Whatever particular changes they were advocating for, they shared the sense that things could and should get better. In the process of trying to convince their fellow writers and readers that they had the authority to speak on such issues, they found new ways to talk to people they had never met.
Race, Empire, and the Struggle for Democracy and FreedomIn his famous speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” (1967), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” If the US wanted to be beacon for freedom and democracy, King warned, it would have to confront the “giant triplets” of racism, militarism, and materialism. In this presentation, Pranav Jani asks us to reflect on Dr. King’s values and to ask what they call on us to do in this moment—as immigrants are profiled and kidnapped in the streets, as students and faculty protesting US policy in the Middle East are suppressed and arrested, and as wealth inequality persists unbated. The revolution of values King talked about will require forging a vision of democracy that is utterly incompatible with racist and imperialist policies at home and abroad, as well as the criminalization of dissent.
When Women Lost the VoteAudiences familiar with the drive for women’s suffrage in the 20th century may be surprised to learn that some women gained the vote after the American Revolution—and then lost it. This talk by Margaret Ellen Newell explores surprising twists in the history of citizenship and women’s rights.
What is a Democratic Foreign Policy?American foreign policy has favored democratic strategies and systems, often prioritizing diplomacy and a historic reservation against intervention in times of crisis or need. Over the first 150 years, when rising democracies around the world called out to the US for support, their requests usually were denied. By the 20th century the idea of public diplomacy became a hallmark rhetoric, if not a reality, for US foreign relations. But what did this change mean? How and when has the threshold for or against intervention and support developed? This talk by Christopher McKnight Nichols will address these questions by explaining how wider publics have and have not been involved in shaping American foreign policy and foreign relations ideologies from the 1770s to the present.
Şamaran: A Kurdish Feminist Counter-ArchiveIn this talk, Sahar Tarighi explores her body of work Şamaran through a decolonial Kurdish feminist lens. Rooted in the Neolithic period, the enduring presence of Şamaran, a figure who is half-woman and half-snake, in Kurdish oral mythology and material culture preserves a worldview grounded in reciprocity, ecological balance, and collective care. Her story functions as an act of justice, revealing ethical orders that stand outside dominant narratives. In a moment when democratic structures worldwide are strained by authoritarianism, disinformation, and the suppression of marginalized voices, Şamaran’s resilient knowledge traditions offer a framework for imagining more equitable and participatory futures. Through artistic practices of ceramics, clay, textiles, and braiding, Tarighi recontextualizes her as a living critique of power and a guide toward more liberatory democratic possibilities.
On the Uncertainty and Power of EducationIn this talk, Winston Thompson describes a few abiding aspects of the contemporary university. Central to these is the tension between higher education’s dynamic and unpredictable impact on students and the powerful force of that impact in society. Thompson probes these ideas and provides guidance on how to engage with them for individual and community benefit.
Villa Albertine: Night of Ideas 2026
Elizabeth Andrews Bond. Photo courtesy of The Ohio State University.
Pranav Jani. Photo courtesy of The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences Marketing and Communications.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries. Photo courtesy of The Ohio State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Margaret Ellen Newell. Photo: Anita Kent.
Christopher McKnight Nichols. Courtesy TEDxPortland.
Sahar Tarighi. Photo: Yoosef Mohamadi.
Winston C. Thompson.
Elizabeth Andrews Bond is associate professor of history at Ohio State. Her book The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France investigated the formation of public opinion via thousands of letters written to newspapers. Her current book project is a microhistory that explores women’s participation in print and politics in the 18th century through the life of Louise-Félicité de Kéralio.
Pranav Jani is associate professor of English at Ohio State. He is the author of Decentering Rushdie (2010) and specializes in postcolonial and ethnic studies. He is affiliated with the Ohio State’s Center for Ethnic Studies, the South Asian Studies Initiative, and several departments including African American and African Studies. Currently a board member of The Ohio State University Chapter of American Association of University Professors and member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at Ohio State, Pranav has many years of experience as a regional social justice organizer. See pranavjani.com for more on his scholarly and public-facing work.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries is an associate professor of history at Ohio State and a nationally recognized scholar of race, democracy, and the African American experience. He is the author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt and has led major public history projects, including serving as lead scholar for the redesign of the National Civil Rights Museum. Jeffries chairs the board of The Montpelier Foundation, which stewards the estate of President James Madison, and serves on the national board of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He is a frequent public voice on democracy, history, and civic responsibility.
Margaret Ellen Newell is distinguished scholar and College of Arts and Sciences distinguished professor of history. She is the author of many works on early American social and economic history, including From Dependency to Independence: Economic Revolution in Colonial New England. Her most recent book, Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery, won the 2016 James A. Rawley Prize for the best book on the history of race relations in the US, and the 2016 Peter Gomes Memorial Book Prize for nonfiction. Presently, she is principal investigator for a multiyear Mellon-funded research project on African American and Native American citizenship and civic engagement.
Christopher McKnight Nichols is professor of history and Wayne Woodrow Hayes chair in national security studies at Ohio State. He is an expert on US foreign relations and political history, with a focus on ideas and ideologies. Nichols is a frequent public commentator and is the author or editor of six books, including Promise and Peril, Rethinking American Grand Strategy, and Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations. Nichols is faculty chair of Ohio State’s America at 250 initiative.
Sahar Tarighi is a Kurdish interdisciplinary artist based in Columbus, Ohio. Working across ceramics, sculpture, installation, video, and social practice, her work investigates the interwoven relationships between body, land, and memory within Kurdish histories shaped by displacement, cultural erasure, and the violence of borders. Treating materials as active repositories, she uses clay, textiles, yarn, and found objects to honor women’s labor, Kurdish feminism, and ancestral mythologies. Grounded in decolonial and postcolonial inquiry, her practice engages Kurdish cultural memory as a site of ongoing wound and repair. Tarighi is currently a post-MFA scholar in the Department of Art at Ohio State.
Winston C. Thompson holds the William H. and Laceryjette V. Casto professorship in interprofessional education at Ohio State, where he is a professor in the Department of Educational Studies and professor in the Department of Philosophy (by courtesy). He is also the director of Ohio State’s Center for Ethics and Human Values.
Villa Albertine Albertine Foundation Institut français Ohio State’s French Center of Excellence Ohio State’s Department of French and Italian Ohio State's Department of HistoryCollege of Arts and Sciences Office of Engagement Wexner Center for the Arts
Kovler
ENGIE
La Chatelaine French Bakery & Bistro
American Electric Power FoundationCoverMyMedsHuntington
Ohio Arts CouncilMilton and Sally Avery Arts FoundationMartha Holden Jennings Foundation Ingram-White Castle Foundation
Greater Columbus Arts CouncilThe Wexner FamilyOhio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the ArtsCampusParcThe Columbus FoundationEvery Page FoundationMellon FoundationAxium PackagingNationwide FoundationMichael and Anita GoldbergVorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP
Joyce ShenkRebecca Perry and Ben TowleLachelle Thigpen
Night of Ideas
