Is It Ever Necessary or Desirable to Rewrite History?

History has empowered humans to weigh the present against the past. For many, an uncensored teaching of history is crucial to understanding who we are and where we came from. However, certain constraints have led the subject of history to be taught more as a series of key periods than as a comprehensive sweep of our lives and civilizations. Sensitivities around controversial or violent pasts, or the holding of important but flawed figures in a favorable light, have also affected how history is taught. Meanwhile, certain historical events are repressed or even banned in autocracies around the world. If history is meant to promote a better future and a more enlightened population, is it ever necessary or desirable to rewrite it? 

Join us Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at 11:00 am EDT // 4:00 pm BST, for another installment of Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Free Speech Project (Georgetown University) and the Future of the Humanities Project (Georgetown University and Blackfriars Hall and Campion Hall, Oxford). 

Martin Johnes, a professor of modern history at Swansea University, specializes in the histories of Wales and popular culture in modern Britain. He has published books and articles that examine politics, sports, masculinity, race, national identity, pop music, disasters, and local government. He is the author of “Welsh Not: Elementary Education and the Anglicization of 19th Century Wales.”

Chandra M. Manning serves as the director of the Georgetown Institute for Global History. At Georgetown, she teaches U.S. history, chiefly of the 19th century, including classes on the Civil War, slavery and emancipation, President Abraham Lincoln, citizenship, the American Revolution, and even baseball. She is the author of the award-winning books, “What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War” and “Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War.”

Jennifer Scott serves as the director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. She is particularly interested in reaching new and younger audiences through its educational and curatorial programming. She previously served as the director of the Holburne Museum in Bath, and as a curator of paintings at the Royal Collection Trust of the British royal family, the largest private art collection in the world. 

Panelist #4 -TBD

Michael Scott (moderator), senior dean and fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, is college adviser for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously was the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University.

Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, is director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, which documents challenges to free expression in American education, government, and civil society. Director of the Voice of America under President Bill Clinton, he was also dean of the American University School of Communication and is a former co-host of "All Things Considered" on NPR.