Professor Jill Lepore speaks with Academy President Laurie Patton about the history of Constitutional amendment and the barriers—both intentional and unintentional—that have emerged to curtail the spirit of experimentation and revision inherent in our foremost founding document.
About the guest
Professor Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. A prize-winning professor, she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, humanistic inquiry, and American history. Her latest book, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution (Liveright, 2026) won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in History.
Professor Lepore was elected to the Academy in 2014.
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