Center for the Study of Democracy

Announcements

William Donald Schaefer Internship Update

Jessica Gillespie, 2009 William Donald Schaefer Internship Winner, is featured in a July 7, 2009 article in The Frederick News-Post Online. The article Summer UNESCO intern learns about other cultures, people, highlights Jessica's interests and the work she has been doing for UNESCO during the summer, including working on "UNESCO Center for Peace's summer camp, which gathers students from around the world to participate in mock U.N. settings and visit cultural sites of interest, during the last two weeks of summer."

Fall 2009 Upcoming Events

September 17, 2009
Constitution Day
“The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution”
Lecture and book signing by David O. Stewart
4:30 pm | Cole Cinema
Co-sponsored by Democracy Studies and the Political Science Department

September 26, 2009
Student and Community Workshop on Citizen Lobbying
Debating for Democracy: D4D on the Road, Midwest Academy
9:30 am-4:00pm | Daugherty Palmer Commons
Co-sponsored by Project Pericles and the Spencer Foundation

October 4, 2009
“Maryland’s Religious Toleration: The Legends, the Myths, and Some Facts”
Lectures by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson (ret.) and Rev P. Kingsley Smith
3:00 pm | The Great Hall at Middleham and St. Peter’s Parish, Lusby, MD
Co-Sponsored by Middleham and St. Peter’s Parish

Spring 2009 Democracy Studies Minor classes are now posted

Welcome

The Center for the Study of Democracy focuses on different dimensions of liberty and democracy in national and international contexts. The Center regularly investigates and discusses Maryland democratic history and contemporary Maryland politics; international dimensions of democratic development and U.S engagement in world affairs. Students, faculty, and community members are encouraged to join our programs and participate in understanding our history and in discussing democracy in our world today.

The Center promotes a wide range of student activities that include curricula and coursework, special educational events and community activities. The Center currently provides support for the democracy studies minor at St. Mary's College and funds summer internship offerings in state, federal and local government service. The Center also promotes citizen engagement in the political process by supporting student organizations that advocate for student participation in elections and government.

The Center supports student organizations interested in the many languages of democracy by funding activities of interest to them-whether they are speakers, exhibits, literary or artistic performances. We ask students to join the discussions we host on campus and to recommend new speakers and dialogues on contemporary problems we face.

The Center strives to give SMCM students the intellectual and experiential foundations for all aspects of responsible citizenship and to empower them with the knowledge that they can make a positive difference. Through its programs and activities, the Center promotes a diverse set of democratic practices, including the importance of engaging in civil discourse, illustrating a wide range of free speech activities to enable respect of diverse opinions, service to the community and civic engagement activities for students.

The Center has also helped foster discussion and debate about what democracy means in the 21^st century, while promoting scholarly discussions about Maryland's democratic promise and failures. The Center's programs benefit SMCM's nearly 2,000 undergraduates, the larger college and local communities, and Marylanders as a whole. International students from diverse parts of the world have been awarded scholarships from the Center while other foreign visitors have been hosted to investigate and explore American democracy.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) We the People initiative awarded the Center a $500,000 challenge grant in September 2004. In 2008, the Center certified $1.5 in private and non-federal funds to receive the full $500,000 federal matching grant. The Center expects to reach a $2 million endowment in late 2009.