Dole Institute spring 2026 programming to commemorate America at 250
LAWRENCE — The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas has announced the start of its 2026 programming year with a slate of events, programs and exhibits that feature conversations reflecting on America’s history, culture and future in honor of America at 250 as well as other timely discussions on public service leadership, world and military history, and socioeconomic issues.
“The semiquincentennial year, 2026, honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, is a milestone opportunity not just to reflect on our nation’s founding principles, aspirations and lessons of history, but also to envision how these shape the future we create together,” said Dole Institute director Audrey Coleman. “We are excited to engage the campus and the general public with special programming to mark the occasion, along with annual program favorites.”
America at 250
Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture
Former Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan will be recognized at the Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture at 7 p.m. Jan. 29.
Shogan served as the 11th archivist of the United States — the first woman to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Under her leadership, NARA launched many strategic initiatives to make archives more accessible, both in person and online, and enhance the agency’s services, all with the goal of cultivating broader public participation and strengthening the nation’s democracy. Before leading NARA, Shogan held positions at the White House Historical Association, the U.S. Senate, the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service. She currently serves as a senior fellow at More Perfect, where she leads In Pursuit, an ambitious, history-based nonpartisan civics initiative that will identify the most insightful and timeless lessons from the past 250 years of American history.
Named after former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Hanford Dole, the lecture series honors her long-lasting career in public service by featuring women who break barriers, make significant contributions in their field and reach positions of leadership.
Fellows and program series
Former Kansas State Sen. Jeff King and journalist Mark McCormick will serve together as spring 2026 Dole Fellows. Their series, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Principles that Built a Nation,” will examine principles undergirding America’s founding and evaluate how they shape our world today. Programs will take place at 4 p.m. on the following Wednesdays:
- Feb. 11: “What Does It Mean to Be United?”
- March 25: “Liberty In a Pluralistic Society”
- April 8: “A Republic, If You Can Keep It”
- April 29: “The Pursuit of Happiness: Is America Still the Land of Opportunity?”
King serves as the executive vice president of the Rodel Institute, where he founded and runs fellowships for judges of all ideological persuasions, as well as bipartisan groups of elected officials, to explore ways that leaders can transcend differences to promote judicial independence and cross-party dialogue. A former Kansas senator (R) representing southeastern Kansas, King worked extensively on criminal justice issues, pension reform, education finance and tax policy as chair of the Senate Judiciary, Pension, and Rules committees. A former 10th Circuit clerk and president of the Appellate Section of the Kansas Bar, Jeff King handled over 60 appeals across the country on issues of school finance, trust, state government and constitutional law. He holds degrees from Brown University, Yale Law School and the University of Cambridge.
McCormick is a New York Times bestselling author with nearly 30 years of experience as a reporter, editor and columnist. He most recently served as the inaugural executive director of the Kansas Black Leadership Council and deputy director of the ACLU of Kansas. He also served for a total of six years as executive director of The Kansas African American Museum. An alumnus of KU, McCormick is a trustee of the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications at KU, served as a professional in residence at the University of Oklahoma and was appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly to two Kansas state commissions, including the Kansas African American Affairs Commission. He has earned numerous awards and recognitions over his career and was inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame last year.
The Dole Lecture
The 2026 Dole Lecture will take place at 7 p.m. April 13 at the Lied Center of Kansas. The lecture’s featured guest, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author, will be announced at a later date.
The annual lecture commemorates the date on which former Sen. Bob Dole was critically wounded while serving in Italy during World War II. To honor his courageous recovery and commitment to serve the nation, the institute welcomes a guest who embodies the commitments that Dole held throughout his career in public service.
Exhibits and partnerships
In partnership with Humanities Kansas, the Dole Institute will be displaying a national exhibit from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The exhibit, “Declaration 1776: The Big Bang of Modern Democracy,” uses primary sources to illustrate how Americans and people across the world have been inspired by the Declaration of Independence in their pursuit of equality and self-determination. Accompanying the exhibit are selections from the Dole Archives pertaining to America’s Bicentennial in 1976 and a display from Humanities Kansas showcasing what was happening on the land that would become the state of Kansas 250 years ago. The exhibit, on display from Feb. 16 to Sept. 7, can be viewed in the Elizabeth Dole Gallery and Reading Room during the institute’s public hours from noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
Ongoing projects
The Dole Archives, along with institutional partners throughout the nation, continue to make progress on the development of the American Congress Digital Archive Portal. The Portal and Dole Collections Online, a new online resource for accessing digitized resources, now features over 1,000 digitized items from the Dole Archies, including nearly 10,000 pages of documents, over five hours of audio recordings, and dozens of images created throughout Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole’s extensive political careers. Current development of the portal is made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
The Dole Institute and the National Council for History Education, in partnership with the Kansas State Department of Education and the Kansas Council for History Education, established the Learning Independence and Nationhood in Kansas Schools (LINKS) Project in honor of America at 250. The three-year project provides educators across Kansas with opportunities to strengthen instruction by connecting local history to national narratives while also building professional networks across schools and districts. Funding for this project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Additional spring programming
Featured Programming
In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 and the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Dole Institute and the Lawrence Arts Center, organizers of the annual Free State Film Festival, will host a screening of the award-winning documentary “UnBroken” at 6 p.m. Jan. 22. The film follows the daughter of a Holocaust survivor as she embarks on an international quest to uncover answers about the plight of her mother and her six siblings who, as mere children, escaped Nazi Germany relying solely on their own youthful bravado and the kindness of German strangers. Following the screening, the film’s director, Beth Lane, will be in conversation with Free State Film Festival founding director Marlo Angell about the film.
The Dole Institute will welcome back Dole Fellows Jerry Seib on Feb. 26 and Qëndrim Gashi on March 5, both at 7 p.m. Guests will be announced at later date.
Seasonal favorites
The Dole Institute’s partnership with the Command and General Staff College’s Department of Military History at Fort Leavenworth continues to bring engaging, free historical lectures to the public facilitated by world-class military history professors. This year’s Fort Leavenworth Series, “The Foundations of War,” will explore the theories, campaigns and leaders who laid the foundations of modern warfighting, including examples from Sunzi in ancient China, Napoleon Bonaparte in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War. Lectures are scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month at 3 p.m., beginning Feb. 4.
Save the date for the institute’s annual Easter Egg Roll with Dole, taking place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 4. The family-favorite event will feature an egg-rolling race inspired by the White House Easter Egg Roll, egg hunt, live music, story time, crafts and more.
The Dole Institute will host the spring edition of The Counselors at 6:30 p.m. April 23, featuring a debate on whether to implement universal basic income. In partnership with the Washburn University School of Law, attorneys and Dole Institute Visiting Fellows Ed Duckers and Pedro Irigonegaray will be joined by members of the Dole Institute Student Advisory Board and Washburn Law students to examine the issue along with a panel of expert witnesses.
Detailed information on all these events, programs and exhibits can be found at the Dole Institute website. Unless otherwise noted, all programs, which are free and open to the public, will take place at the Dole Institute and can be streamed live on the institute’s website and YouTube channel. Members of the media wishing to attend any of these programs are asked to contact Jackson DeAndrea at jackson.deandrea@ku.edu to make arrangements.
About the Dole Institute
The Dole Institute of Politics promotes a new era of leadership that uses politics to bring people together through opportunities that emphasize bipartisan cooperation, public service, and civic education and engagement, inspired by the leadership legacies of Senators Bob and Elizabeth Dole and the enduring civic contributions of the Greatest Generation.