Committee on Civic Education & Engagement

The APSA Committee on Civic Education and Engagement focuses on the contributions that higher education, and political sciences in higher education institutions, are making or could make to enhancing the quantity and quality of civic engagement among young Americans.

Civic Education and Engagement Committee Members:

Term expiring August 31, 2013

Archon Fung, Harvard University
Elizabeth Theiss Smith, University of South Dakota, chair

Term expiring August 31, 2014

Scott Abernathy, University of Minnesota

Term expiring August 31, 2015

Els de Graauw, CUNY-Baruch College
Peter Levine, Tufts University

Recent Committee Activities

On-going committee projects include a resource guide on civic education and engagement; increased collaboration with APSA groups and committees on civic education initiatives (i.e. the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference and Annual Meeting events); APSA's involvement in 2012 Constitution Day classroom visits where professors are invited into high school classroom for a civics/government lesson; and committee panels at the Annual Meeting (see below for previous panel topics). The committee makes often invites community practitioners, as well as political science scholars to sit on its annual meeting panels.

The committee holds its regular fall meeting at the APSA Annual Meeting.

Previous Committee Panels:

• 2009 Annual Meeting Panel: Global Citizenship Panel

• 2010 Annual Meeting Panels:

o Race, Ethnicity, and Civic Engagement*
o Marginalization and Citizenship in Times of Crisis*
*(Co-sponsored two panels at the 2010 Annual Meeting with the Race, Ethnicity and Politics Organized Section)

• 2011 Annual Meeting Panel: Urban Sustainability and Civic Engagement

Previous Committee Projects

Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It

As a result of a project initially organized and sponsored by the APSA committee on civic education and engagement, Brookings Institution Press published (2005) Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation, and What We Can Do About It, which examines the trend toward civic disengagement, locates the sources of civic debility in the United States, and provides an agenda for reform and rehabilitation. More on Democracy at Risk

Civic Education on APSAnet.org

See the civic education section for resources on civic education and engagement in precollege education as well as in higher education.