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Educating for a Democracy in Question

Can Civic Learning Light the Way Forward for Higher Education and Democracy?

Friday, January 23, 2026
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM East Coast USA Time
Location: Chinatown - Level M3

    Primary Presenter(s)

  • Jonathan Alger

    Chair, AAC&U Board of Directors
    President, American University, United States

    • Presenter(s)

  • TM

    Thomas Merrill

    Associate Professor, School of Public Affairs
    American University

  • Roosevelt Montás

    John and Margaret Bard Professor in Liberal Education and Civic Life
    Bard College

  • NS

    Nancy Shapiro

    Senior Advisor
    Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement Coalition
    Adelphi, Maryland, United States

    PDF
College civics learning, long a buoyant but sidelined higher education movement, now is commanding new levels of policy, media, and campus-level attention. Red state leaders are making study of the Constitution and core texts a new college curriculum requirement; educators across blue, purple, and red states are leaning in on viewpoint diversity, constructive dialogue across difference, and collaborative problem-solving to create solutions to festering problems. The question for higher education leaders—and this panel—is how to bring these different movements together to productively serve both democracy’s renewal and the larger meanings of student success.

Can the civics movement become a space for collaborative problem-solving across multiple viewpoint differences? What role should core texts play in the civics movement? And, as America heads into its milestone 250th birthday, how do we engage the next generation with its signal role in shaping the future of our shared democracy?