Tocqueville Forum

Course Offerings

Course Curriculum Support
One way for the Tocqueville Forum to further its desire to contribute to the academic life of Georgetown University is by offering courses in the Department of Government. The Forum provides partial and full funding of courses offered by our Post-Doctoral Fellow, Visiting Senior Scholars, and Adjunct Professors.  The courses cover a broad range of subjects but are consistent with the mission of the Forum.

Future Course Offerings
The Forum will continue to fund up to three courses by the post-doctoral fellow, and is expecting a Visiting Senior Scholar for a course in the 2009-10 academic year.

For information on course offerings in Summer 2009 by faculty affiliated with the Forum, see this announcement.

Student Reading Group

Since Fall 2007, the Tocqueville Forum has hosted a weekly reading group principally for undergraduates interested in our mission. An informal gathering led by past Forum Postdoctoral Fellow Brian Smith, the group read Tocqueville's Democracy in America and various Platonic dialogues in previous semesters.

As of right now, we are still working on a syllabus and plan for the weekly reading group during the Fall 2009 semester.

Past Course Support
The Forum provided James Ceaser of the University of Virginia with travel funds to support his teaching a graduate seminar on “Foundational Ideas and American Political Development.”  We also provided George Mason University’s Peter Berkowitz with a paid teaching assistant, Tocqueville Forum Graduate Fellow, Aimee Raile. Prof. Berkowitz taught an undergraduate seminar on “Critique and Defense of Religion.”

The Tocqueville Forum increased its support to include full funding for three courses during the 2008-9 academic year. In the Fall 2009 semester, our Jack Miller Center Post Doctoral Fellow, Brian Smith, offered an advanced level course, Govt. 424, “Machiavelli and the Art of Statecraft in Modernity”

In the Spring 2009 semester, Dr. Smith offered an advanced level course, Govt. 467, “Issues in American Political Thought”.

Also in the Spring 2009 semester, our Associate Director, Dr. Steven Brust, offered an upper level course, Govt. 489, “Law and Morality.”