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Citizenship in the 21st Century

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Who is (or ought to be) included in citizenship? Who gets to decide? What responsibilities come with citizenship? Is citizenship analogous to being a friend, a family member, a business partner?

Students have class outside

What makes this course unique:

This seminar will address both the historical roots as well as the future of citizenship, especially as it comes under stress from populism, authoritarianism, climate change, and other challenges. Starting with Stanford’s fundamental standard, we ask how citizenship in a community needs to be constantly redefined and reinvigorated for each new era.

Course Description

Citizenship is not just what passport you hold or where you were born. Citizenship also means equal membership in a self-governing political community. We will explore some of the many debates about this ideal. How have people excluded from citizenship fought for, and sometimes won, inclusion? These debates have a long history, featuring in some of the earliest recorded philosophy and literature but also animating current political debates in the United States and elsewhere. This course satisfies the Ethical Reasoning or Social Inquiry Way (ER or SI).

Inside the Citizenship Seminar

Special Events:

Democracy Plenary: early in the quarter, expect an evening session bringing speakers from outside Stanford to grapple with the challenges to democracy today.

Three Books Series: each quarter, COLLEGE hosts a Three Books event, bringing an external speaker and providing students with a free copy of the book. The winter 2024 speaker will be announced during fall quarter.

In Citizenship in the 21st Century, you will read texts including:

  • Tracy K. Smith’s erasure poem “Declaration”
  • Plato’s Apology and Crito
  • Ken Liu's short story “Mono No Aware”

Details

COLLEGE 102: Citizenship in the 21st Century is 3 units and meets 2x/week for 80 minutes. It satisfies Way-ER or Way-SI. See ExploreCourses for detailed schedule offerings (to be updated in mid-August).

Who's Teaching You?

In addition to all of our COLLEGE Lecturers, many faculty and affiliates from around the university will offer a Citizenship in the 21st Century seminar (instructor listing to be updated to mid-August).

People

  • Brian T. Bateman
    Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
  • Paul Brest
    Professor of Law, Emeritus and Director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab
  • Joel Cabrita
    Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
  • Persis Drell
    Provost, Emerita, James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Physics
  • Anna Grzymala-Busse
    Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor of International Studies and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution
  • Kenneth & Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law
  • Taylor Madigan
    The Jane Kim and Jung Min Lecturer in Undergraduate Teaching
  • Edith M. Cornell Business Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
  • Alison McQueen
    Associate Professor of Political Science and, by courtesy, of History
  • Lloyd B. Minor, MD
    The Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the School of Medicine, Vice President for Medical Affairs, Stanford University, Professor of Otolaryngology –– Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Neurobiology and of Bioengineering, by courtesy
  • Thomas Schnaubelt
    Executive Director for the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions
  • Dustin Schroeder
    Associate Professor of Geophysics, of Electrical Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
  • Parna Sengupta
    Director and Associate Vice Provost, Stanford Introductory Studies
  • Blakey Vermeule
    Senior Associate Dean for Humanities and Arts and Albert Guérard Professor of Literature
  • Paula V. Welander
    Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Earth System Science
  • Keith Winstein
    Associate Professor of Computer Science and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering