Johanna Drucker, a distinguished research professor emerita in the UCLA department of information Studies and Center & Clark Core Faculty member, has created a striking new interpretation of the Declaration of Independence for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The UCLA Newsroom featured the story in their weekend edition on July 3, 2026.
Commissioned by the American Philosophical Society, Drucker’s “Re-Declaration Project” uses erasure to remove references specific to the American Revolution, allowing the document’s enduring principles of liberty, equality, and self-government to emerge with renewed relevance. Johanna Drucker’s talk for the American Philosophical Society on “The Re-Declaration Project,” can be seen on YouTube. (Her segment begins at 3:42:00.)
Johanna Drucker’s work will be on display through January 2027 in the exhibition “These Truths: Declarations of Independence” at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
-Jeanne Schniedewind