As the driving force animating an effort to teach young faculty members how to approach topics related to American civics in their classrooms, the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government (CCCG) recently collaborated with the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) School of Civic Leadership to host the inaugural Teaching American Civics Seminar. Senior scholars gathered with recently-minted Ph.D. students and faculty from January 8-10 at the Notre Dame office in Washington, D.C. to explore American political thought, the political economy, constitutional law, and African American political thought.
"We're investing in the future,” said Professor Phillip Muñoz, professor of Political Science and Director of the CCCG. “We're equipping young educators with the tools they need to encourage serious and thoughtful inquiry in their classrooms. These are the people who will be teaching the next generation of civic leaders.”
Participants represented a wide array of institutions, including the United States Military Academy at West Point, The Catholic University of America, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Notre Dame.
Muñoz opened the seminar with a three-part series on American political philosophy, highlighting the intentional use of contrasting authors in his syllabus. “My course, American Constitutionalism, is set up with clashing ideas from different professors. It introduces students to various ideas, which they assess to draw their own understanding.”
Participants teaching in this area, like Josh Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Intellectual History and Economics at the School of Civic Leadership remarked, “The American Political Thought course — notably the part on the American Founding — is particularly useful for me in laying the groundwork to independence and how choices made pertaining to government end up having a profound effect on subsequent economic debates in the new nation.”
Muñoz guided students through the core principles of the Founding Era, focusing on the people as the “only safe depositories” of government. His goal is for students to formulate their own opinions on the original texts.
Participant Garrett Jones, Jefferson Center’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UT-Austin, found the sequencing of texts informative. “I find that many courses merely emulate old syllabi and do not ever question how readings are sequenced or how to layer discussion. This workshop showed the level of intentionality and care that is required to teach American constitutional development.”
John Yoo, a professor at UC-Berkeley Law, transitioned the conversation to the legal framework of the nation.
In his sessions on American Constitutional Law, Yoo explored the “ideological origins of the American Revolution” and the drafting of the Constitution. Utilizing primary sources like The Federalist Papers, Yoo discussed the evolution of executive power and how the debates of the Washington administration continue to inform modern legal controversies.
Yoo emphasized the importance of incorporating recent news into class, pushing students to form strong, informed opinions. By using legal precedent to help state one’s case, students will be challenged to use constitutional principles in the context of today’s world.
Participant MAJ Leo Matthews, professor at the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, reflected on Yoo’s session. “I particularly liked the way that Professor Yoo encouraged us to use Supreme Court cases as a delivery mechanism for all policy or theory lessons.” Looking ahead, MAJ Matthews is going to “revise a number of lesson plans to include recent cases as a direct link between core/founding principles or debates and contemporary issues.”
Dr. Rita Koganzon, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shifted the focus from political theory to the American political economy. Rather than focusing solely on formal economic mechanisms, Koganzon explored the relationship between policy and citizenship.
This was helpful for participants like Matthew Reising, Assistant Professor at UT- Austin, who stated, “I especially found the walk through of the political economy course to be helpful, since economics is a weak point of mine.” Reising noticed a cohesive overall theme: “I appreciate that the political economy syllabus was obviously connected to the other three syllabi via theory, law, and questions about slavery/race.”
Koganzon’s approach at UNC prompts her students to debate the fundamental positions of thinkers like Aristotle, Smith, and Marx, ultimately asking how a capitalist regime shapes the moral character of its individuals.
Participant MAJ Hisham Yousif, Secretary General for the Student Conference on U.S. Affairs in the Department of Social Science at the United States Military Academy, particularly benefited from Dr. Koganzon’s sessions. “I teach political theory, and seeing different variations of theory applied to race and economics was invaluable to deepen the relevance of theory to the pragmatic student.”
The seminar’s final day focused on the moral arc of the American story. Dr. Lucas Morel, Provost Faculty Fellow, John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics, and Department Head of Washington and Lee University, conducted sessions on African American Political Thought. He examined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the country and analyzed rivalries between Douglass, Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington. Morel helped students understand how the struggle for equality is linked to the American Founding principles.
Dr. Morel’s “Race and Equality” course guides students on how to navigate charitable, historically attentive discussions about the nation’s complex history. The course starts off by exploring the American Founding, with an introduction to universal principles of the Declaration of Independence and the historical reality of slavery. By using primary texts, such as Thomas Jefferson’s deleted paragraphs in the draft of the Declaration and Frederick Douglass's reflections on the Constitution, Dr. Morel wants students to directly engage with intellectual and moral struggles. This would encourage them to look back at the 18th and 19th centuries and how those struggles were heightened, instead of purely relying on modern summaries.
“The most helpful walk-through for me was the Race and Equality syllabus,” commented Catherine Borck, Associate Professor of Instruction and Director of Academic Affairs in UT-Austin’s School of Civic Leadership. “It was something I had only included as part of a class, but now I see a way to teach it as a class in itself.”
Dr. Morel also emphasizes the importance of intellectual rivalries that act as push factors of civic progress and self-understanding. Students look at two contrasting strategies for Black progress by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois, as well as the later critiques by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolence by Malcolm X. He strategically concludes with contemporary issues, including the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College, and Critical Race Theory. This is meant to further demonstrate the struggle for equality in an ongoing dialogue that requires students to use historical lessons to modern legal and cultural topics.
Banerjee noted how useful Dr. Morel’s session was. He claimed, “The African American Political Thought has provided some very useful readings and given me inspiration for tackling the political roots to some very thorny issues in American economic history— most notably slavery, the Civil War, and its aftermath.”
In addition to review and discussion of syllabi and pedagogical methodology, the seminar facilitated opportunities for professional development and camaraderie. Stephen Wrinn, Director of the University of Notre Dame Press, hosted a book publishing workshop over lunch on Friday, January 9. Wrinn provided participants with information on the current state of scholarly publishing and offered his insight about how to best pursue a publishing deal for those who are in their early careers. Participants continued their conversations about each respective day’s teaching over shared meals.
Participant Bridget Knuffke, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, reflected on the success of the workshop as a whole. “The workshop was extremely helpful in broadening my understanding of American civics and prepared me to teach any of the four courses that we studied. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable this workshop has been for me, and even if I do not teach the exact course that we covered, I feel well-equipped to tackle similar courses, i.e., ‘Philosophy of Race in America’ or something along those lines. Each course was valuable, and the presentation of the courses largely built upon one another.”
"We were thrilled to bring together this group to discuss ideas so fundamental to American civics," CCCG Co-Director Don Stelluto said. "It's exciting to take what we're doing at the center, and use that to provide educational foundations for future teachers."
The Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government and the School of Civic Leadership at UT-Austin are committed to fostering a deep understanding of our nation’s founding principles. By bridging the gap between political theory, law, and economics, this seminar serves as a model for future efforts in protecting civic education. Stay up to date with the CCCG’s offerings by subscribing to our newsletter.