Our Courses

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“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and the right of the People to “alter or abolish” their government — the famous words of the Declaration of Independence — lay the foundations of our constitutional democracy. In this course, Danielle Allen draws on her teaching and writing about the Declaration to explore how the document took shape and what guiding principles we can find in it for our own lives today. Following the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, participants will work together to interpret the Declaration’s arguments for freedom and equality and its religious appeals. Participants will also consider later efforts to bring the United States closer to the ideals of the Declaration and to realize its vision of equality and liberty.

The United States Constitution has been in use longer than any other written constitution in the world, but when the framers wrote and revised its original text, they worried about whether it would be strong enough to survive the conflicts of their day. Could a country as large as the United States really function as a constitutional democracy? Could the Founders create a government strong enough to hold the union together? Ultimately, they created an enduring framework of checks and balances that enables our pluralistic society to come together, debate issues, and find consensus. In this course, we’ll think about the fundamental principles of the Constitution, and how it continues to structure our civic life today.

What do you get when you ask 300 educators and academic experts, all across the political spectrum, what “excellence in teaching history and civics” really looks like? You get the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, a set of key themes, questions, challenges, and pedagogical principles that guide us on our way to best practices. The Roadmap helps us to think about how to make civic learning and rigorous civic dialogue accessible for all students in the United States, how to cultivate students’ civic identity and sense of responsibility, and how to support students as they learn to act in a responsible and informed manner as citizens. In this course, participants will engage deeply with the Roadmap and will practice following its guidance as they (re)design lesson plans and teaching materials.

Abraham Lincoln is often credited with having saved or re-founded the American Union by giving it a “new birth of freedom.” In this course, we will seek to understand Lincoln’s statecraft in conjunction with his literary craft. We will concentrate on Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, examining it alongside the Declaration of Independence which it famously quotes. We will explore the character of American constitutional democracy, with a focus on the concepts of liberty and equality. We will inquire into the nature of self-government and the threats it faces. Why did we have a civil war? What was the status of slavery in the American constitutional order? Why was secession illegitimate? What does Lincoln suggest is needed to forge a new Union capable of achieving both racial and sectional reconciliation? What guidance can the Gettysburg Address offer to later generations? Is there still a “great task remaining before us”?

Student-led civics projects provide a unique and meaningful opportunity for students to examine themselves and their communities, and to cultivate an understanding of their personal interests, motivations, and decisions as civic participants. In this course, we’ll draw from actual student project examples to support you in planning and carrying out projects with students if you haven't tried one before, or in going deeper with student-led civics projects if you've already facilitated them. You may also choose to apply the project-based learning processes and principles to other areas of your work with students.

Understanding the history of the Vietnam War is critical to understanding the influence and power of the United States as an international presence in the world today. From civil disobedience and protests, especially on college campuses, to the major and rapidly evolving role of television and media in the civic arena, the history of the Vietnam era holds many lessons and resonances to help us better make sense of the intense debate over how the U.S. defines and pursues its national interests. In this course, we’ll think about how best to support students in learning a full and accurate history of this period, and in thinking critically about the role that America and Americans play in a global context.

Understanding our historical and political context in a full and accurate way, by engaging with hard histories and multiple perspectives, makes us better-informed civic participants. This course offers participants the opportunity to engage with the historiographical debates surrounding the history of Black lived experiences, race (not just Black and White), and immigration (from South America, Central America, and Asia) as they relate to Jim Crow, civil rights, pluralism, and fights against continued oppression. This course also supports participants in identifying the continuities and discontinuities between the Jim Crow era and our current historical moment.

AI tools such as ChatGPT are already transforming education and the public sphere. How should we engage with such technology to improve student learning outcomes and our society? As it stands, such AI tools are treated as expert, even though they are not expert in any field and are vulnerable to abuse, falsehoods and adversarial attacks. The lack of effective oversight and accountability for this technology exacerbates these problems. This course provides the basic digital competency on how state-of-the-art AI tools work (no prior knowledge necessary) and how we should prepare students to engage with them.