Ken Burns to give Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics

The Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics will be given in 2026 by preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.  

“As an award-winning historian and documentarian, Ken Burns has helped bring the story of America to life, one chapter at a time,” said Nancy Gibbs, Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. “We are at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history, and I can think of no better person to help us understand how we got here, and how we might move forward together.” 

Since the Academy Award– nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Burns has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; The U.S. and the Holocaust; The American Buffalo; Leonardo da Vinci; and, most recently, The American Revolution. 

Burns’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, two Oscar nominations, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. In 2022, Burns was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. 

The Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics was endowed at the Shorenstein Center in 1989 to give Kennedy School students and the public an opportunity to hear directly from thinkers and practitioners at the forefront of how democracy shapes and is shaped by the information landscape. Past speakers include Walter Cronkite, David McCullough, Cokie Roberts, Congressman John Lewis, Rachel Maddow, William Safire, and Jill Lepore.  

Ken Burns will hold a fireside chat with Nancy Gibbs on March 25, 2026 in the JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School.

Registration for in-person tickets will open in early March, with priority given to Harvard University ID holders. The event will be livestreamed for the public.