2025 American Democracy Project Summit Call for Proposals
Submit proposals by March 18.Meeting theme
Full Participation
AASCU invites submissions to present at the American Democracy Project Summit, happening July 13-14, 2025 in Indianapolis, IN. We seek a diversity of perspectives and experiences, and we especially encourage presentations that include students and feature teams.
Democracy can be frustrating, slow, and contentious. Often, the civic engagement work done on a campus can feel isolated and be un- or under-appreciated. This meeting will change that narrative by showcasing that, through AASCU’s American Democracy Project, there are resources and a community that exists to help build and grow civic engagement within higher education.
Meeting details.Proposal formats
Topical Sessions (45-minute sessions): Presentations, which could be led by an individual or a group, designed to share best practices and/or facilitate conversations about the practical application of civic and community engagement projects. If accepted, you may be paired with another concurrent session to share the 45-minute time block.
Ignite Talks (5-minute sessions): Designed for individuals to share compelling, innovative practices on a large stage, ignite talks use 20 slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds and requires speakers to be concise, prepared, and dynamic.
Poster Sessions: Textual and graphical presentations of civic engagement projects or research.
Proposal topics
We recognize how interconnected the field of civic engagement is. This topic selection allows us to maintain a diverse portfolio of options.
What are the key features of the thriving democracy we hope to enact and support through our work?
- Navigating legislative challenges
- Incorporating and supporting student voice
- Redefining political engagement
- Incorporating diverse voices in our work
- Higher education’s democratic responsibility
- Honoring community voices and wisdom—especially for indigenous-serving institutions
- Exploring/understanding foundational, democratic documents and their relationship to current affairs
- Understanding interrelated concepts of civic engagement, democratic engagement, civic learning service learning, activism, and advocacy
What knowledge, skills, and dispositions contribute to a thriving democracy, and how do we embed this in our work?
- Voter engagement work and results
- Increasing civic engagement beyond social sciences; encouraging interdisciplinary efforts
- Practicing/modeling difficult conversations/dialogues
- Digitial literacy
- Bringing curricular and co-curricular efforts together
- High impact practices
- Experiential learning
- AI possibilities
- Address the colonization of our educational system
How can we build the institutional culture, infrastructure, and relationships needed to support learning that enables a thriving democracy?
- Institution-wide collaboration and building campus stakeholders
- Collaborating with other campuses
- Building leadership supports for civic engagement
- Aligning institutional mission/values with civic engagement
- Integrating campus and community efforts
- Building regional support structures
- Understanding different campus models for student engagement
- Implement and assess institution-wide civic learning objectives
