Activities throughout 2026 connect UT students and community to our nation’s living history in observance of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
1976: Knoxville Celebrates the American Bicentennial
Sponsored by the Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts, this exhibit looks at how Knoxville observed the US Bicentennial in 1976. Open through July 27.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the College of Arts and Sciences engages students with creative, hands-on experiences that ignite curiosity and cultivate better understanding of the Declaration’s meaning and legacy during this semiquincentennial birthday of the nation.
Insightful activities throughout the year include shared experiences, lectures, courses, publications, and other opportunities for celebrating and discussing the Declaration of Independence—presented across the Departments of History, Philosophy, and Political Science.
“The 250th anniversary provides a unique opportunity to examine the origins, development, and future of American democracy,” said Professor Brandon Prins, head of the Department of Political Science. “It is a moment to reflect on the ideas and diverse groups that helped build this country.”
Fall activities still developing within the political science department will include panel discussions on topics like “What do you expect in the next 250 years,” student presentations, voter registration encouragement, and poll worker training.
A Practical Declaration
One timely centerpiece for the study of the Declaration was published this summer (June 30) by UT Press. Professor of History Chris Magra edited America’s First War: The Military History of the Declaration of Independence, a collaborative collection of essays that blossomed from a 2025 symposium held at UT’s Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs.
“The Center for the Study of Tennesseans and War invited nine military historians to campus to present research on the military dimensions of the Declaration,” said Magra. “I then worked with the authors and UT Press to turn those presentations into book chapters, and I wrote the intro and conclusion.”
Contributing scholars examine ways that the Declaration was more than an abstract treatise on liberty, functioning as a rallying cry to galvanize support throughout the colonies for the Revolutionary War. The book examines the deliberate rhetorical choices made by Thomas Jefferson and the Continental Congress to frame the colonies as a sovereign nation worthy of international recognition and military alliances.
UT Press representatives will have this book and similar titles available on July 3 and Magra will present the book in person on July 4 at the Museum of Appalachia during its America 250 Anvil Shoot Celebration.
Ideas Shared with Common Sense
Insightful activities for 2026 kicked off with a February event marking the 250th anniversary of a related formative text, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which helped shape the ideas that became the Declaration. Students participated to create their own hand-sewn pamphlets in Paine’s style and made a letterpress print. This collaboration across disciplines gave students a sense of how philosophy, politics, history, art, and civics connect and interact.
“Of the major texts we associate with the Revolution and the birth of the Republic, Common Sense is the earliest and the most democratic,” said Professor Avery Kolers, head of the Department of Philosophy. “As a political pamphlet it is virtually unparalleled because it links the grievances of the colonists with fundamental issues in the theory of government.”
Kolers and Professor Beauvais Lyons, divisional dean for arts and humanities, joined the Institute of American Civics to present a version of the Common Sense event to 100 Maryville High School Advanced Placement US History (APUSH) students during the spring semester. Lyons worked with the students to stitch their own pamphlets, as in the February event at UT, and Kolers led a question-and-answer session about Common Sense and the political ideas it presented.
In upcoming fall events, the Departments of Philosophy, Africana Studies, Political Science, and Sociology will collaboratively host a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar lecture by Derrick Darby, the Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, on Thursday, September 17. Titled “Hip-Hop, Philosophy, and the (Broken) Social Contract,” Darby’s talk draws from the world of rap and hip-hop music to examine challenges to the basic rights and liberties presented by documents such as the Declaration of Independence.
Kolers also will offer further in-depth ideas related to the founding of the country this fall in his Philosophy 391 Social and Political Philosophy class.
“We’ll zero in on three key values in the Declaration: equality, liberty, and self-governance,” said Kolers. “We’ll ask what the Declaration and the founders and some of their interlocutors and critics seem to mean by each of these ideas, and some tensions in those ideas, particularly as relevant to African-descended people, women, and Indigenous people. We’ll discuss what we mean by these ideas—what interpretations of these ideas are most defensible from the perspective of political philosophy.”
The range of perspectives presented throughout these and other 250th anniversary activities exemplify to the UT tradition of free and bold intellectual inquiry and vibrant civic engagement across disciplines.
by Randall Brown