CLS: Robert Putnam & Lara Putnam

Following Dr. Robert Putnam’s Tuesday keynote lecture at Hoover Auditorium, join Putnam and his daughter, Lara for a special workshop discussing of the practical aspects of rebuilding community.

What steps can each of us take within our own communities to rebuild social ties and civic life? What concrete actions can grow the “social capital” that is so essential for personal wellbeing and our democracy’s health?  In this workshop, renowned scholar Robert Putnam—whose work is profiled in the documentary “Join Or Die” (2023) to be screened — and his daughter, history professor Lara Putnam, lead discussion to identify practical strategies that can have real-world impact in participants’ own lives and communities.

Lara Putnam is UCIS Research Professor at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). She studies Latin American and Caribbean history and global trends in technology and democracy. She is the co-lead of the Southwest PA Civic Resilience Initiative at Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, and is the incoming director of Pitt’s Global Studies Center.  Since 2017 Lara has used ethnographic and oral historical methods to explore grassroots political organizing in “rust belt” Pennsylvania and beyond. Her writings have appeared in venues including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wired, New Republic, Vox and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.