Events

The Center encourages education and discussions on democracy, civic engagement, and liberty in national and international context. To help our students understand and learn about these topics, the Center sponsors lectures student competitions, guest speakers, and forums. Since its inception in 2002, the Center sponsors about 25 events a year.

As a joint initiative of St. Mary's College of Maryland and Historic St. Mary's City, the Center has strong ties to the discussion of historical and contemporary issues surrounding the state of Maryland. To help our students better understand political Maryland, the Center hosts elected officials and, during the election years, candidates for political office. During the 2006 election cycle, the Center hosted almost all candidates running for statewide office including the major Senate candidates and the three major gubernatorial candidates. The Washington Post has quoted the Center and the classes it supports as being "a kind of Mecca for Maryland politicians (October 19, 2006)."

The Benjamin Bradlee Distinguished Lecture in Journalism, named for advisory board member and president-at-large of The Washington Post, began in the fall of 2003. This event hosts individuals who have made outstanding contributions in journalism focusing democracy and the implications of democracy. The inaugural Bradlee lecture titled "The Constitutional Implications of Watergate" honored Washington Post editor, Bob Woodward. The 2006 lecture hosted Tony Kornheiser, Washington Post columnist, ESPN's Monday Night Football, Pardon the Interruption (PTI), and Washington Post Radio commentator. The 2008 Bradlee lecture hosted Tom Brokaw, NBC News commentator and author, who discussed the topics surrounding his books The Greatest Generation and Boom: Voices from the '60s.

The Center each year holds lectures that focus on the strategic and defense issues. In the past we have hosted individuals including Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, the Director of Central Intelligence, James Woolsey, and NATO Commander, General Andrew J. Goodpaster. Since 2006, the Center along with The Patuxent Partnership, co-sponsors the annual Patuxent Defense Forum, a meeting of academics, military officers, government employees, and defense contracts that discusses key issues in U.S. and world defense and international affairs.

In educating our students on the importance of emerging democracy in international countries, the Center hosts a wide array of international speakers to discuss the effects of democracy on their country. In 2007, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Center a grant to support an international symposium on democratic experiences for three years. During the 2007-2008 school year, the inaugural symposium was focused on Latin American Countries. The Center worked with six departments throughout SMCM to conduct 13 events and lectures on democratic issues pertaining to Latin American countries. These events included speakers ranging in profession from poets, political figures, film directors, historians, and employees of various Latin American organizations. Each symposium also supports a year round film festival highlighting films that depict the struggles of local peoples due to the changes in politics and new political trends.