Chase Center Courses

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:45-2:05 p.m. | Smith Lab 1076 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Jacob Hall

Effective self-government has been the historical exception rather than the rule. The framers of the United States Constitution were acutely aware of the fragility of experiments with self-government. This course seeks to sharpen students’ awareness of that fragility by analyzing arguments and case studies that especially informed American framers’ thinking. Throughout the semester, students will survey the origins, institutions, achievements and failures of efforts at self-government. They will use both primary and secondary sources to gain a better understanding of how notions of citizenship and justice have varied across time, culture, and historical context within the Western Tradition. 

This course provides essential historical and intellectual context for understanding the American experiment. As such, it is inspired by and provides an updated version of the example of the historically sweeping, inter-disciplinary survey courses that were once a staple of the general education curriculum in higher education. This is not a course in general cultural literacy, however, but literacy in the specific puzzles that preoccupied early architects of the American civic tradition, and which provide essential shared foundations for more specialized study of the challenges of American civic life.

• Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:45-2:05 p.m. | Smith Labs 1042 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Matt Frakes

This course introduces students to the development of American civic thought: the intellectual tradition of reflecting on the nature, rights, and responsibilities of American citizenship. Throughout the semester, we will consider how the Declaration of Independence served as a lynchpin of American civic thought and action. 

How should we today evaluate Abraham Lincoln's claim that the Declaration can serve as an “electric cord” uniting citizens of different generations, descents, and circumstances? To what extent has the Declaration provided a strong foundation for American political community, and to what extent can it continue to do so? What are alternative grounds for this nation’s civic life? Answering these questions will lead us to examine the relationship between principled and pragmatic justifications for civic life in the United States. 

Have Americans found – or when do they need – shared moral commitments to support their social and political arrangements? Or have they found – and do they need anything more than – compelling incentives for working together even when they deeply disagree? By the end of the semester, students will be able their answer to these questions with the answers offered by scholars working in disciplines from across the social and behavioral sciences. 

This course is broken up into four units. Each approaches these questions through the prism of the Declaration of Independence:

• First, students will explore the Declaration’s understanding of citizenship and its role in establishing the United States as a nation where citizenship is frequently defined with reference to a “civic creed.” This unit will also expose students to alternatives to the “creedal” conception of American citizenship.
• Second, students will examine the relationship between the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution to illuminate the dilemmas involved in squaring commitment to general principles with their practical implementation.
• Third, students will investigate how American citizens have debated and revised their understanding of the principles of the Declaration––and the legal frameworks, institutional arrangements, and social relationships appropriate to realizing those principles.
• Fourth, students will consider political traditions that developed in critical conversation with the American civic tradition.

• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35-10:55 a.m. | Smith Lab 1042 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Daniel Gullotta
• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:20-3:40 p.m. | Enarson Classroom Building 0202 | Faculty: Associate Professor of Teaching Paul Wilford
• Wednesdays and Fridays, 11:10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Smith Lab 2186 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Jesse Smith

This course introduces students to key episodes and cultural developments in American civic life––from the Colonial Era to the Founding, through the Civil War, and up to the present day. Our guide for understanding American citizens’ evolving engagement with their political society is one of the most influential books ever written about the United States: Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. 

Tocqueville offers us a privileged lens into the evolution of American civic culture for several reasons. He visited the still-nascent Republic in 1831 with the specific intent of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of its new political order, liberal democracy. Tocqueville also strained to identify the civic foundations of America’s growing geopolitical power at a time when American civic norms were rapidly changing and hotly contested: Tocqueville witnessed and commented on the rise of Jacksonian democracy, the dispossession of American Indians, and the powerful role of religion in U.S. political culture. 

Students will not only spend the semester investigating Tocqueville’s writing but also learning about his character. Indeed, part of the reason he provides such valuable insight into America’s colorful civic life is because he bridged many political, geographic, and intellectual worlds himself. He was born into the French aristocracy and served in government after his country’s revolution, but he was never fully trusted by parties of either the revolutionary left or the counter-revolutionary right. His education in philosophy and theology deeply shaped his outlook, but his writings ended up setting a foundation for the social sciences and American understandings of political cultures;. And, though a proud Frenchman, his writing has been crucial to Americans’ self-understanding of their democratic tradition, quoted by nearly every U.S. President since World War Two. With Tocqueville’s Democracy in America as this course’s anchor, students will not only expand their understanding of American civic life as a cultural phenomenon but also reflect on how they can more ethically participate in it today. 

This course is structured thematically. Each week throughout the semester, students will spend their first class exploring how Tocqueville analyzes a central theme––for instance, the role of political parties in American democracy, the sources of its wealth and prosperity, the causes of the Civil War, and threats to democratic self-government. Then, during the second half of the week, students will explore how the same theme is addressed by a wide range of classical and contemporary authors from the American civic tradition. This approach will expose students to competing political, philosophic, and methodological perspectives that they could explore more intensely in an upper-level course. 

This course structure will also allow students to combine depth (slowly working through one primary text, giving a particular author’s point of view the careful, nuanced attention that any critical assessment requires) with breadth(surveying a range of powerful alternatives, both old and new). Moreover, such a structure will enable us to cover substantial ground––putting different periods of American history into conversation with one another and discovering crucial points of continuity and change between them. 

• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:45-2:05 p.m. | Denney Hall 0245 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Brianna Frakes

This course introduces students to debates that have shaped the American civic tradition. The course is anchored by primary texts from the Founding period which set the parameters for subsequent arguments within and about American civic life. These sources are also examined through their application to contemporary constitutional debates and landmark Supreme Court cases. 

Students will learn how contemporary civic dilemmas and solutions continue to center around foundational debates and early decisions that defined the American constitutional order, and how those debates continue to inform discussions in contemporary scholarship, court cases, and public policy dilemmas. 

Topical dilemmas to be considered include principles of justice, as applied to college admissions policy; the legal definition of citizenship, including birthright citizenship; and constitutional amendment procedures.  

Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:35-10:55 a.m. | Enarson Classroom Building 0222 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Sabrina Little

The Declaration of Independence names “the pursuit of happiness” as an unalienable right, alongside life and liberty. This course introduces students to the tradition of inquiry on happiness and the good life that informed the American Founders, with special attention paid to classical and early modern thinkers. 

It investigates the place that virtue and duty have in a good life, and it asks what role, if any, a government should play in supporting the happiness of its citizens. This course explores the difference among hedonic, eudaimonic, and desire-satisfaction accounts of happiness and asks how they present in American civic life. 

The semester concludes with the dominant contemporary account of happiness from the social sciences as subjective well-being. It addresses where suffering fits into a good life, and it explores why our intuitions about what will make us happy are often wrong.  

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Scott Lab 0103 | Faculty: Lecturer Heather Wilford and Associate Professor of Teaching Paul Wilford

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Smith Lab 1076 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Laura Siscoe

Does politics make people smarter or dumber? Students will leave this class with an increased ability to navigate cognitive and moral errors that corrupt political reasoning among citizens in diverse societies. Topics covered include the intersection of citizen identity and politics, the ethics of partisan loyalty, and the role of social groups in the formation of our individual political beliefs. 

If you hope to be a fully engaged and effective citizen in an increasingly diverse society, you must critically reflect on your habits of political reasoning. Good political reasoning is inextricably linked to the pursuit of justice both locally and globally, as well as to individual and societal-level flourishing. 

In the past decade there has been a lot of attention paid to such subjects as political polarization, echo chambers, declining trust amongst citizens, identity politics, and the role of religion in government. And for good reason. In recent years, the United States (along with many other liberal democracies) has become increasingly politically fractured, with a rising percentage of Americans stating that those who disagree politically cannot even agree on basic, non-political facts about the world. 

There is also strong evidence that a majority of citizens across a smattering of democratic societies wish to see substantial changes to their nation’s current governmental system. All of this is set against a backdrop of rising sociological diversity and increasing pluralism about what an ideally just society looks like. It is widely agreed that our public political discourse, institutions, and systems have become increasingly fractured and dysfunctional in a myriad of ways. 

Alongside much popular-level speculation and theorizing, there has also been an explosion of academic work on the topic of political reasoning. This is a large umbrella term, under which falls work in a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, social psychology, religion, critical theory, and political science. 

The common thread of academic work under the banner of political reasoning is that it pertains to how it is that you do and should reason about matters of political relevance. One of the key challenges to creating a more just world in the midst of increasing conditions of sociological diversity is that many people disagree over what an ideally just world looks like. Given this plurality of ideas about justice, citizens are often confused about how to engage matters of political and moral significance, as well as how to effectively and respectively communicate with their neighbors about such topics. 

This course is designed to fill in this gap, enabling students to engage in critical and logical thinking by diving into cutting-edge philosophical work on the topic of political reasoning. They will also engage various historically influential texts and synthesize various themes pertinent to the topic of political reasoning that have been addressed in various ways throughout intellectual history. Students will implement multiple methodological approaches to the subject matter of political reasoning, borrowing methodologies from various disciplines. 

This 3000-level class will familiarize you with some of the best and most recent scholarly contributions on this subject, featuring a number of important texts and debates from various intellectual disciplines––as well as some popular-level work. Readings draw from analytic philosophy (including pieces from Michael Huemer, Michael Hannon, C. Thi Nguyen, Regina Rini, etc.), political science (Christopher H. Achen, Larry M. Bartels, etc.), social psychology (Cass R. Sunstein), and critical theory (Charles Mills). 

This course goes beyond what is required in introductory level courses, as it requires reading a number of difficult historical texts as well as a good amount of work that is considered on the cutting edge of political epistemology. The study of political epistemology as it relates to political reasoning prompts students to analyze the concepts of citizenship, justice, and diversity at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. It does this by requiring a more in-depth and complex synthesis of various methodological approaches and a more diverse array of author viewpoints, including influential viewpoints from critical theory, the history of philosophy, social psychology, and democratic theory. 

This course is interdisciplinary in design, encouraging students to draw connections between their major/minor field of study, other courses they have taken, and even their own real-world experiences as it pertains to citizenship for a just and diverse world. There is an emphasis on guided classroom discussions on difficult subject matter, helping students draw out these potential connections between differing conceptions of citizenship, justice, and diversity more explicitly. 

Topics covered include the intersection of citizen identity and politics, the ethics of partisan loyalty, and the role of social groups in the formation of our individual political beliefs. Through a combination of readings, lectures, discussions, and structured debates, you will leave this class with an increased ability to navigate many of the cognitive and moral errors that serve to corrupt your political reasoning as a citizen in a diverse society. Put differently, you will better understand how politics breaks your brain and what you can do about it.

Mondays 2:15-5 p.m. | Smith Lab 1076 | Faculty: Assistant Professor Luke Perez and Professor Christopher Green

This transdisciplinary course draws on historical and contemporary case studies in leadership from various civic arenas: politics (local, state, and federal), religion, education, business, and non-profit. Students will explore: What ideas and philosophical premises underlie healthy, or unhealthy, civic leadership? How do leaders navigate the tension between tradition and change? How have American leaders successfully channeled American ideals of equality, individualism, and freedom into constructive, community-minded civic ends?

What does it mean to lead with purpose in a complex world?

This interdisciplinary seminar invites students to explore the lives and leadership styles of prominent American figures who have shaped civic, cultural, and institutional life. Each week, students will engage with real-world case studies and leadership models across law, politics, religion, education, and business—learning how individuals navigate tradition, challenge norms, and foster meaningful change.

Confirmed Guest Leaders Include

• Bishop Earl Fernandes – Catholic leader and advocate for moral clarity in public life
• Rabbi Lewis Kamrass – Champion of interfaith dialogue and civic responsibility
• Senator Rob Portman – Former U.S. Senator with a legacy of bipartisan leadership
• Representative Beryl Brown Piccolantonio – State and local government leader focused on equity and community engagement
• Justice Melody Stewart – Ohio Supreme Court Justice and trailblazer in legal ethics and education
• President Gordon Gee – Visionary university president and higher education reformer
• Phil Derrow – Business executive and civic entrepreneur committed to workforce development
• Senator Eric Kearney – Legislative leader and civic innovator advancing equity and economic opportunity

Course Highlights

• Weekly discussions on leadership, identity, and institutional transformation
• Bi-weekly student presentations connecting theory to practice
• Honors students complete a CRIG Project (Creativity, Resilience, Independence, Grit)

This course is ideal for students interested in public service, law, education, business, nonprofit leadership, or anyone seeking to understand how personal agency intersects with civic life.

Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:35-10:55 am, Smith Labs Room 5097 

Faculty: David Little, PhD

Focuses on Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic study of Democracy in America, in conversation with humanists, social scientists, and public policy practitioners who have engaged in key concepts from Tocqueville’s work throughout American history.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:10 am to 12:30 pm, Smith Labs Room 5097

Faculty: Wes Siscoe, PhD

Focuses on how Americans have debated Abraham Lincoln’s claim that the Declaration of Independence serves as an “electric cord” uniting citizens of different generations, descents, and circumstances.