Program Overview

Introduction to the Civic Life and Leadership Minor

The Civic Life and Leadership Minor, offered by the School of Civic Life and Leadership, is an interdisciplinary program designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead with wisdom, engage in reasoned conversations across differences, and live with purpose in a pluralistic democracy.

Program Description

The minor explores the foundational questions, texts, and traditions that have shaped American democracy and Western thought. Through this program, students will develop a civic perspective that connects philosophy, history, religion, economics, and politics. They will also master the American civic tradition and its global influences, critically examine how this tradition serves broader human flourishing, and build skills for public discourse and leadership.

Program Requirements

To complete the minor, students must earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 in the minor core requirements. The requirements include:

• SCLL 102: Pursuing the Good Life (3 hours)
• SCLL 103: Seeking the Just Society (3 hours)
• Three electives, one from each of the three categories of courses listed below (9 hours)
• Total Hours: 15

Course Categories

The minor offers three categories of courses:

Civic Discourse and Leadership

This category provides students with the opportunity to learn how to disagree fruitfully across differences. Courses in this category will expose students to controversial questions and debates, encouraging productive approaches to disagreement that a pluralistic society depends on.

• SCLL 170: Left, Right, Center (FC-PAST, FC-VALUES)
• SCLL 185: How to be a Citizen (FC-VALUES, COMMBEYOND)
• SCLL 201: Practice of Civic Life and Leadership (COMMBEYOND)
• SCLL 240: Free Speech, Fanaticism, and Censorship (FC-VALUES, FC-KNOWING)
• SCLL 270: Winning with Words: Democratic Rhetoric (FC-VALUES)

American Civic Life

This category allows students to critically examine the nature, structure, and foundations of the American regime. Courses satisfying the American Civic Life category may focus on American political development, the American intellectual tradition, the sources of American civic thought, or comparisons of American civic life with some of its alternatives, historical or contemporary.

• SCLL 150: Foundations of American Civic Life H (FC-VALUES, FAD)
• SCLL 155: Declaration of Independence: Contexts & Controversies (FAD)
• SCLL 160: The Moral Economy (FC-PAST, FC-VALUES)
• SCLL 165: What is the American Character? (FAD)
• SCLL 180: Democracy in America: Promises and Perils (FAD)
• SCLL 207: The Global Cold War (FC-GLOBAL)
• SCLL 250: Democracy-Ancient and Modern (FC-VALUES, FAD)
• SCLL 352: Lab Coats and Legislators: Science, Technology, Policy, and Politics (FC-KNOWING)
• SCLL 500: Grand Strategy (FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST)

Fundamental Questions and Ideas

This category invites students to examine the fundamental questions of human life and political society through the reading of classic philosophical, political, literary, and religious texts that speak to these questions.

• SCLL 104: Deep Reading Boot Camp (FC-AESTH)
• SCLL 125: Utopias and Dystopias (FC-PAST)
• SCLL 132: Philosophy of Education (FC-PAST, FC-VALUES)
• SCLL 136: Love and Death
• SCLL 140: Islam and its Others (FC-PAST)
• SCLL 145: The Family in Political Thought (FC-PAST, FC-VALUES)
• SCLL 215: The Politics of Comedy and Tragedy (FC-VALUES)
• SCLL 255: Thought and Action in the Ancient Polis
• SCLL 350: Science and Society (FC-KNOWING)
• SCLL 425: Natural Law and Human Rights
• SCLL 429: Political Theology (FC-POWER, FC-VALUES)
• SCLL 510: Human Rights in the Modern World

Opportunities for Civic Life Minors

Students minoring in Civic Life and Leadership have access to the following co-curricular opportunities:

• Personal mentorship from a faculty member, including check-ins every semester, advice on course selection, and internship and post-graduate advising
• Eligibility for a Libertas Scholarship, which offers $1500/semester toward tuition, for up to eight semesters
• Eligibility for summer research and internship funding
• The opportunity to attend and participate in reading groups, debate societies, and events put on by the department and the Program for Public Discourse.