Adlai E. Stevenson Memorial Lecture Series Featuring Doris Kearns Goodwin

    Monday, October 6, 2025 at 7:00 PM until 8:30 PMCentral Daylight Time UTC -05:00


    Shirk Center Basketball Arena
    302 E Emerson St
    Bloomington, IL 61701
    United States

    Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin will speak at the Adlai E. Stevenson Memorial Lecture Series, co-hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University, on Monday, Oct. 6. Goodwin will speak at IWU’s Shirk Center Basketball Arena at 7 p.m., with a presentation titled, Leadership in Turbulent Times; Advice for Today from Our Best Presidents. The moderated program, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by audience Q&A.

    Goodwin’s career as a historian launched when she was selected as a White House Fellow at age 24, an opportunity that led her to work personally with President Lyndon Johnson both in the White House and later on his memoirs. Her first book, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, became a national bestseller and achieved critical acclaim. 

    Since then, Goodwin has authored numerous critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling books, including the Carnegie Medal winner The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film “Lincoln.” No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II earned her the Pulitzer Prize.

    With her vast knowledge of American leadership and ability to provide historical context for current-day events, Goodwin is often called upon by the news media, late-night TV hosts, and hundreds of companies, educational institutions, government agencies and nonprofits to keep the country informed. 

    The Adlai E. Stevenson Memorial Lecture Series is named after Bloomington native Adlai E. Stevenson II, former Illinois governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. This event brings innovative and enlightening speakers to Bloomington-Normal campuses to foster community and conversation around the appreciation of learning.

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