America at 250
The 10th annual COA Summer Institute welcomes filmmaker Ken Burns in conversation with Jeffrey Rosen, CEO emeritus of the National Constitution Center.
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen reflect on the stories that have shaped the nation’s past and continue to define its present. Drawing on Burns’s latest documentary, The American Revolution, as well as his broader body of work, they explore how pivotal moments in American history—from the founding era to more recent chapters—have revealed the country’s enduring tensions, aspirations, and contradictions.
Together, they consider what these stories can teach us about who we are and how we have changed, as well as what they ask of us now. Looking across a wide spectrum of American life, from politics and war to culture, landscape, and identity, they reflect on the values and challenges that have persisted over time. At a moment of reflection and possibility, they explore how a deeper understanding of the past can help shape the next chapter of the American story.
The 2026 Summer Institute: Toward a More Perfect Union will mark the country’s 250th anniversary with a forward-looking series of conversations about the future of the American experiment. By late July, we anticipate that audiences will have encountered plenty of historical retrospectives and the predictable swing between overly patriotic and overly critical narratives. Our goal is different: To convene voices from across American culture—journalism, the arts, science, philanthropy, civic life, and beyond—and explore how the nation’s founding values have been, and continue to be, tested, reshaped, and reimagined. The Institute asks how these ideals can be stewarded, strengthened, and carried into the future.