LSU Hosting NEH-Sponsored National Convening on Civics Education

Panel of national experts to discuss reform of civics education on Feb. 4 at LSU

02/02/2020
BATON ROUGE – The Eric Voegelin Institute at LSU is hosting the “Educating for American Democracy: A Roadmap for Excellence in Civics Education” project for its first national convening on Feb. 2-4, where scholars and practitioners in history, political science, and education will discuss the integration of history and civics education in America’s K-12 schools.

“Educating for American Democracy” is an initiative that is bringing together leading academics and practitioners from a number of sectors to produce a report that will outline high-priority history and civics content areas, and recommend instructional strategies and best practices that teachers, schools, district and state policy-makers can use to integrate the teaching of civics and history at every grade level. The report will be released at a national forum in Washington, D.C., fall 2020.

The project, which will also include a convening at Arizona State University later this year, is funded by a $650,000 cooperative agreement from the National Endowment for the Humanities, or NEH, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education. Led by iCivics, the country’s largest civics education provider, “Educating for American Democracy” is a partnership between the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, Tufts University Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. 

The convening at LSU will include NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede and iCivics Executive Director Louise Dubé, as well as Danielle Allen, who is James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University; Paul Carrese, professor and director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University; Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University; and Peter Levine, who is Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Associate Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts.

They and about 30 other scholars will hold two days of intensive planning sessions at LSU in February. 

About 15 observers from LSU, Southern University and the Louisiana Department of Education, as well as several local teachers and students, will also be involved. A panel on the topic of the conference, open to the general public, will follow the conclusion of the convening on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 3 p.m., in the Sternberg Salon of the French House and will include Professors Allen and Carrese, as well as Zevi Gutfreund, associate professor of history at LSU, and Albert Samuels, professor of political science at Southern University.

“It’s a great privilege for LSU to host this meeting, designed to address one of the most urgent educational issues of our time,” said LSU’s Executive Vice President & Provost Stacia Haynie. “Our university’s commitment to promoting good citizenship in Louisiana makes us especially proud to welcome these academic champions to our campus.”

The Voegelin Institute, named for one of LSU’s original Boyd Professors and a scholar of international recognition and acclaim, is a humanities and social science research institute devoted to the revitalization of teaching and understanding of the great works of civilization.

 

 

 

Contact James Stoner
Eric Voegelin Institute
225-578-2538
poston@lsu.edu  

or

Ernie Ballard
LSU Media Relations
225-578-5685
eballa1@lsu.edu