Fall Colloquium: Democratic Resilience
October 9, 2025 |聽4:30 - 7:30 pm | 2101 Commonwealth Ave, Brighton Campus | Please to Attend
The Fall Colloquium on October 9 launches our year-long exploration of democratic resilience, featuring a keynote address by 2024 Nobel laureate and MIT Professor Daron Acemoglu.聽Acemoglu is an Institute Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2024, Acemoglu received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, together with Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, 鈥渇or studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.鈥澛燩lease join us for the Clough Center鈥檚 major event of Fall 2025.
Speakers

Daron Acemoglu
Daron won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics for his groundbreaking work on the key role strong institutions play in a country鈥檚 democracy and wellbeing, encapsulated in his international bestseller Why Nations Fail (co-authored with his frequent collaborator, The University of Chicago鈥檚 James Robinson). Drawing on fascinating real-world stories like the town on the U.S./Mexico border that has a dramatic difference in prosperity on either side of the border, Daron reveals how we can leverage our institutions to improve our communities and our world. In a moment where our democracy stands at a crossroads, his work has never been more vital.
One of the most renowned economists on the planet, Daron is a historian who looks at what has happened and tells you what will happen next, with deep expertise in the impacts of technology on democracy, culture, and civilization. In his most recent book Power and Progress, co-authored with fellow Nobel Prize winner Simon Johnson, he shows us how technology has historically been used to benefit a select few, but we can regain control and turn today鈥檚 advances into empowering and democratizing tools. In talks, he gives us the big-picture vision we need to change the way we innovate in order to use our creativity for the good of humanity. The Financial Times named Power and Progress to their Best
Technology Books of 2023, recognizing that Daron鈥檚 insights into power, institutions, and social progress are vital in an age of ever-evolving AI. Daron is also the editor of Redesigning AI, a look at how new technologies can be put to use in the creation of a more just society.
With James Robinson, Daron co-authored the New York Times bestseller Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty鈥攁 major work of historical, political, and cultural heft that comes along only once every few years. Throughout this ambitious, bracing work (shortlisted for the Financial Times聽Business Book of the Year Award), Daron answers a question that has confounded leading minds for centuries: why are some nations rich, while others poor? Instead of looking to weather, cultural practices, or geography, we need to look to institutions, he argues鈥攂oth strong and poor, political and economic鈥 to understand prosperity and success. Called 鈥渞equired reading for politicians and anyone concerned with economic development鈥 by Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel), and 鈥渁 splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor鈥 by The Wall Street Journal, Why Nations Fail offers illuminating solutions to our most fundamental economic problems: how to move billions out of poverty, build robust, sustainable institutions, and empower effective democracy.
Daron and James also wrote The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty: the highly anticipated follow-up to Why Nations Fail. It鈥檚 a vital, big-picture assessment of how liberty flourishes in select states, yet devolves into authoritarianism or even anarchy in others鈥攁nd how liberty can keep thriving, in spite of new, global threats. The Narrow Corridor was named one of both the Financial Times and Kirkus Reviews鈥 Best Books of 2019. Called 鈥淎 work of staggering ambition鈥mart and timely,鈥 by Newsweek, and 鈥淎nother outstanding, insightful book by Acemoglu and Robinson,鈥 by Nobel Laureate Peter Diamond, The Narrow Corridor is an essential exploration of liberty for today鈥檚 age.
Daron is an MIT Institute Professor (the highest title awarded to faculty members) and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists. His academic work covers a wide range of areas, including political economy, economic development, economic growth, inequality, labor economics, and economics of networks. He is the author of five books, including Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor. Daron has also written for mainstream magazines such as Esquire and Foreign Policy, is a regular speaker for
banks, think tanks, corporations, and other major institutions across the globe, and has received highprofile attention in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist, and many more. He also co-edits academic publications, such as The Journal of Economic Growth.
A professor of Applied Economics at MIT, Daron was twice named one of Foreign Policy鈥檚 Top 100 Global Thinkers, as well as the 2019 winner of the Kiel Institute鈥檚 聽Global Economy Prize. He has received the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal for being a top economist under 40, the Nemmers Prize in Economics, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and an Andrew Carnegie fellowship.
Program
Campus Map and Parking
Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.
Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).
Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.