2019 Jefferson LectureFather Columba Stewart The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, established by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1972, is the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Past Jefferson Lecturers Dr. Rita Charon 2018 Martha C. Nussbaum 2017 Ken Burns 2016 Anna Deavere Smith 2015 Walter Isaacson 2014 Martin Scorsese 2013 Wendell E. Berry 2012 Drew Gilpin Faust 2011 Jonathan Spence 2010 Leon Kass 2009 John Updike 2008 Harvey Mansfield 2007 Tom Wolfe 2006 Donald Kagan 2005 Helen Vendler 2004 David McCullough 2003 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 2002 Arthur Miller 2001 James McPherson 2000