Sandra R Levitsky, Sociology | 2020-2021
This grant seeks to create a model for incorporating civic learning into the LSA curriculum. At a time when political tolerance in the United States has hit a 20-year low, when alarming numbers of college-aged students cannot identify misinformation in the news, and when public faith in core democratic institutions continues to decline, higher education has a responsibility to nurture democratic citizenship. Civic learning includes not only a historical understanding of the history and theory of democracy, but also critical reasoning skills that help to distinguish true information from false, a commitment to values such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a view of democracy as cooperative rather than a winner-take-all competition. This project seeks to develop a class on the history of democracy and inclusion that incorporates a novel Civics Lab, a series of exercises and assignments designed to teach—through practice—the core principles of deliberative democracy.