Programs
The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy, named for Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century French observer of America, endeavors to emulate Tocqueville's sympathetic and penetrating exploration of the origins of and prospects for American constitutional democracy. Sponsoring events such as conferences, lectures, and colloquia on the campus of Georgetown University, the Tocqueville Forum hopes to deepen classical liberal learning and elevate the civic understanding of the students of Georgetown University and the next generation of citizens and leaders.
Public Events
Tocqueville Forum offers large events and intimate ones; both attract people of varied interests and are robustly intellectual. Public lectures and roundtables comprise the most visible part of our programming, drawing large audiences. Undergraduate students, graduate students, journalists, policy analysts, and other members of the Washington, D.C. political and academic arenas regularly attend our events. Please find the list of all of the Tocqueville Forum's upcoming public events on our Events page.
Our most prominent annual event is the Rev. James V. Schall, S.J. Award for Teaching and Humane Letters, which is generously supported by Michael Maibach and The Maibach Foundation. The Schall Award was inaugurated in the Spring of 2008 and is held annually in the Spring semester. Please find more details about this and other awards on our Awards page, and find information about the upcoming Schall Award and past Schall Awards on our Events page.
Private Events
We also hold many private e
vents for the benefit of undergraduates. The Forum has a Student Fellows program for undergraduates who are invited to exclusive events. By these, we aim to foster the type of intimate, seminar-style discussions that we believe are critical to the intellectual growth of undergraduates. These include “Great Encounters”, the reading group, the undergraduate journal -Utraque Unum, the Conference on the American Polity, and a student retreat. For more information about Tocqueville Forum fellows, please see our Fellows page.
Course Offerings
The Tocqueville Forum is proud to contribute to the curriculum at Georgetown by offering classes from the Post-Doctoral Fellow and a visiting professor. In the Spring 2009 semester, the Forum sponsored its first complete course, and its offerings have continued to grow. For this semester’s offerings and past offerings, please see our Course Offerings page.
Father John Carroll was the first Catholic Bishop and Archbishop in America. Through the creation of Georgetown College, Father Carroll realized his dream of creating a Catholic academy "to unite the Means of communicating Science with an effectual Provision for guarding and improving the Morals of Youth."