All ICJS programs are offered in a hybrid format with in-person and online attendance opportunities. We look forward to welcoming you to our programs! Virtual programs at the ICJS are free, unless specified otherwise. In-person programs, while also free unless specified otherwise, may require advanced registration. See individual event pages for details.

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Upcoming Programs

Pursuing Happiness in the Revolutionary Atlantic

Join us on Monday, May 13, at 4 p.m. for the 2024 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Lecture with historian Sarah Pearsall, held at the University of Virginia's Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library in Charlottesville. Free; registration required.

DAACS Conversations

Join DAACS staff and DAACS collaborating scholars for a diverse range of conversations on ground-breaking new archaeological research in the American South and Caribbean. Multiple dates.

Previous Programs and Recordings

This is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations

Join us, Thursday, April 25th, from 4:30-5:30pm, for a conversation between Whitney Nell Stewart, historian and author of This is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations and Andrew Davenport, Director of African American History & The Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello. 

Revolutionary Women: A Symposium

Celebrate Women's History Month with the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and the University of Virginia Press. Join us Friday, March 22nd, 2024 beginning at 1pm for Revolutionary Women: A Symposium. 

The 2023 ICJS Book Events Series

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies for a series of Book Events. Each event will feature new and exciting books by leading scholars discussing a variety of topics on the history of the early American republic. 

American Academy of Diplomacy Annual Conference

Friday, November 17th
Join us for a conference on Democracy in the Americas - the Monroe Doctrine and the Past and Present of US Policy in Latin America.

Held at Montalto and co-hosted by the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

En Route to Revolution

Join us Tuesday, October 3rd at 4pm ET for a Hybrid Fellow's Forum with Iris De Rode, U.S. Committee Member of "America 2026". 

The Second Annual Leonard J. Sadosky Memorial Lecture

Join us, Friday September 29th, 2023 at 4 p.m. ET for the Second Annual Leonard J. Sadosky Memorial Lecture, "American Reformation" given by Dr. Alyssa Penick, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, University of Virginia. 

Much More than Macaroni

Join us, Thursday, July 27th from 4-5 p.m. ET, for an in-person Fellow's Forum with Culinary Historian, Karima Moyer-Nocchi.

2023 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series with Historian Patrick Griffin

Join the University of Virginia Library and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Friday, May 12th from 4-6pm EDT for the 2023 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Lecture: "The Man Who Built Jefferson's World: Yankee Sullivan and the Making of a Global System" given by Patrick Griffin, University of Notre Dame Madden - Hennbry Professor of History and Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies.

This lecture, co-hosted by the University of Virginia Library, will be held in the Albert and Shirley Small Collections Library, University of Virginia. 

On Becoming Dolley Madison

Join us Wednesday, December 7th, from 4-5 p.m. ET for a virtual Fellow’s Forum with Holly Cowan Shulman, editor of The Dolley Madison Digital Edition.

What the Sub-Floor Pit Holds

Join us Tuesday, November 29, from 4-5 p.m. ET for a virtual Fellow’s Forum with Luke J. Pecoraro, PhD, Director of Archaeology, Drayton Hall Preservation Trust.

Annual AAD Conference: Diplomacy and the Environment

OCTOBER 21 - Environmental change is the leading transnational challenge of today. Diplomacy is a key part of the transition from words to action but what does this mean in practice? To answer these and other questions, the conference will bring together a diverse group of experts.

Intertwined

Join us on September 14 at 4:00pm ET for a talk with Jim Ambuske (of Mount Vernon) and Jeanette Patrick (from George Mason University), moderated by Monticello's Jenna Owens, as they discuss their widely acclaimed podcast Intertwined about the enslaved community at Mount Vernon.

Black Girl in Paris

A virtual Fellows Forum on Aug. 25 at 4 p.m. with AriDy Nox: writer, librettist, playwright, and Jacinth Greywoode: writer, composer, and musical director.

Sally Hemings: Forced Itinerancy as a Site of Possibility?

A virtual Fellows Forum on Aug. 23 at 4 p.m. with  Johanna Heide, a PhD fellow with the DFG-funded RTG Minor Cosmopolitanisms at the University of Potsdam. Her research deals with questions of the ‘archive of slavery’ and its afterlives.

The American Revolution and the Ancient World

A virtual Fellow’s Forum with Jean-Baptiste Goyard, professeur agrégé (associate professor) in English at Versailles University and a PhD candidate in American history at Paris 8 University, France.

Both quantitative and qualitative analyses suggest that American colonists referred to antiquity in order to legitimize the creation of a de jure republican confederation in the mid-1770s in the antimonarchical sense of the term, to express patriotic optimism until the turn of 1780s, to debate on the suitability of an extended federal republic and to express exceptionalism during the debate on the Constitution.

Enslaved Women and the Duality of Feeding in Monticello and the US South

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Emily West, Professor of American History at the University of Reading (UK) and Chair of British American Nineteenth Century Historians (BrANCH). Tuesday, July 26, 2022, 4:00 p.m. ET

“Clever,” “Industrious,” and “Well Qualified” Women: The Role of Non-Elite and Enslaved Women on Jefferson and Washington’s Plantations

Virtual Forum Thursday, July 21, 4–5 p.m. ET—A virtual Fellow’s Forum with Laura Sandy, Associate Professor in the History of Slavery & Director for the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS), University of Liverpool, UK

Building on research contained in her monograph, Early American Overseers of Slavery: Supervisors, Enslaved Labourers, and the Plantation Enterprise, Dr. Sandy expands our awareness and understanding of the lives of non-elite free women, female servants, and enslaved women who labored on plantations. In particular, her research uncovers and investigates women who played supervisory and skilled roles at Monticello and Mount Vernon.

Jefferson and Kosciuszko: Two Different Friends

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Bartosz Dudek, journalist and Head of the Polish Service of Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.

Thomas Jefferson: Anti-papist

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Evan Haefeli, Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University. May 26, 2022

Thomas Jefferson Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series

Decoding the Founding: Truths, Lies, and Myths

Presented by Joanne Freeman, Class of 1954 Professor of American History and of American Studies at Yale University. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series is a collaborative effort between the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the University of Virginia Library, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair in the Corcoran Department of History at the University. The lecture was established to bring to the University eminent scholars whose research will provide fresh insights into topics related to Jefferson. The UVA Library is proud to be a sponsor of this event, continuing its mission of connecting people with resources and ideas as the center of the University's unique educational community. 

The Abolition of the Slave Trade to the United States

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Kenneth Morgan, Professor of History in the Department of Politics and History at Brunel University, London. April 26, 2022

A Spark of Revolution

Join the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (RIISS) at the University of Aberdeen and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual book talk with Martin Clagett, independent scholar and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment, the American Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. February 22, 2022.

Fighting Words in the American Revolution, 1763-87

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Nicolas Bell-Romero, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry at the University of Cambridge. Thursday, January 27, 2022

Book Launch: The Spirit of Inquiry in the Age of Jefferson

Join the American Philosophical Society to celebrate the launch of a special issue of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society based on the APS’s Spring 2018 symposium on "The Spirit of Inquiry in the Age of Jefferson."

 

Held in commemoration of the 275th anniversary of the American Philosophical Society’s founding in 1743 and the birth of its long-time President, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, APS 1780, President 1797-1814), the 2018 symposium was co-sponsored by the National Constitution Center, the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and explored the history of science, knowledge production, and learning during the Age of Jefferson (1743-1826).

 

The newly-published volume based on the symposium proceedings contains papers that touch on an enormous range of topics and fields--much like Jefferson's own intellectual life!

 

Join Andrew WehrmanEndrina TayDiane Ehrenpreis, and Elizabeth Chew in conversation with Andrew O'Shaughnessy as they reflect on Jefferson's influence on scientific inquiry during the Early Republic.

Dolley Madison: a Quaker by Birth and a Slave Owner by Choice

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Holly Cowan Shulman, research professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. December 16, 2021

The Most French of all the American Presidents

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Laurent Zecchini, journalist and independent scholar. November 23, 2021, virtual.

The Last King of America

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for an in-person (and virtual!) book talk with bestselling author, Andrew Roberts. November 18, 2021.

News, Propaganda, and Diplomacy

A conference co-hosted by the American Academy of Diplomacy and The University of Virginia Center for Politics. October 30, 2021

Book Launch: The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies for a book launch with author Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy (Saunders Director of the ICJS and Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation). October 5, 2021.

Transatlantic Slavery Symposium

The Transatlantic Slavery Symposium is a joint venture between the Robert H. Smith Scholarship Centre at Benjamin Franklin House in London, the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Our aim is to bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to address the lasting impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through panel discussions on themes ranging from its historical foundations and development in the Revolutionary Atlantic world to current best practices in the museums and heritage sector. We hope that by addressing this complex topic from a historical and contemporary perspective, that we can spark further discussions on how to bring stories of enslaved people to the forefront of public history internationally.

Violence and Peace in Virginia Legal Culture

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Matthew Steilen, Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law, State University of New York. Tuesday, July 27, 2021

The Michaux Subscription List

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a virtual Fellow's Forum with Patrick Spero, Librarian and Director of the American Philosophical Society Library. Thursday, July 8, 2021

Why Do We Teach the History of the American Revolution?

Presented by Jane Kamensky, Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and the Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Distinguished Lecture Series is a collaborative effort between the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the University of Virginia Library, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair in the Corcoran Department of History at the University. The lecture was established to bring to the University eminent scholars whose research will provide fresh insights into topics related to Jefferson. The UVA Library is proud to be a sponsor of this event, continuing its mission of connecting people with resources and ideas as the center of the University's unique educational community. May 13, 2021.

The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a digital book talk with historian and Professor of Military Theory and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College, Colonel (Retired) Kevin J. Weddle, April 22, 2021.

Fiske and Marie Kimball: Shaping Our Experience of Buildings and Objects

Please join us as we investigate the many ways Fiske and Marie Kimball shaped our experience and understanding of art and architecture in the 20th century. Each of the ten speakers in this conference will share with us a different facet of the contributions made by this “power couple” of the early twentieth century, including the critical roles they played in the preservation of Monticello. A virtual conference hosted by the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, March 20, 2021. (This program is made possible by the Fiske and Marie Kimball/Monticello Fund, generously provided by the Trustees of the Jane Tarleton Smith Moore estate.)

The Education of John Adams

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a digital book talk with R.B. Bernstein (Lecturer in Law and Politics at the City College of New York) on his newest book, "The Education of John Adams." December 15, 2020.

New Frontiers in Early American History

Join Mount Vernon and Monticello for a virtual talk with four emerging Early American History scholars. This event is co-sponsored by the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. November 19, 2020.

Humboldt and Jefferson: Transatlantic Exchange of Knowledge and Ideas

Join the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany for a discussion between Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy (Saunders Director of the ICJS and Vice President of Monticello) and Dr. Sandra Rebok on the significance of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander von Humboldt for the sciences and transatlantic relationships. November 11, 2020

Does Europe Still Matter to America?

October 24, 2020, a virtual conference co-hosted by the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies

Washington and Jefferson: It's Complicated

A discussion with Professor Frank Cogliano of the University of Edinburgh, co-hosted by Mount Vernon's Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, August 27, 2020

Virtual Book Talk with Laura Sandy on Overseers in Early America

Join Mount Vernon's Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for a digital book talk with Dr. Laura Sandy of the University of Liverpool on her new book, The Overseers of Early American Slavery: Supervisors, Enslaved Labourers, and the Plantation Enterprise, July 28, 2020

Through a fellowship programinternational scholarly conferences, panel discussions, teacher workshops, lectures, and curriculum-based tours, the ICJS establishes relationships with people from around the world.