The course uses the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and outlaws age discrimination, as a prism through which to examine both the history of disenfranchisement and the fight for voting rights in the United States today. It has a particular focus on critical college constituencies, including students, faculty, staff and institutional leaders. The course will also focus on case studies exploring how college communities promoted, defended, and expanded the right to vote. Guest lectures will feature major actors and practitioners in the sphere of voting rights and democracy, including U.S. Senator Andy Kim, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and David Goodman of The Andrew Goodman Foundation, a youth organization created in honor of his brother, a civil rights worker murdered during Freedom Summer in 1963.
This is an academic course designed by historians, political scientists and an election law professor and practitioner. It is taught synchronously and online. It is strictly non-partisan.
Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.
Priority deadline to apply is May 1. Final deadline is May 27. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
This is an academic course designed by historians, political scientists and an election law professor and practitioner. It is taught synchronously and online. It is strictly non-partisan.
Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.
Priority deadline to apply is May 1. Final deadline is May 27. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
One Course, Many Perspectives
This summer course was originally co-designed and taught for the last three years by faculty from colleges that have served as sites of legal voting rights precedent, including Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bard College. Those faculty members will join the compressed summer course. The course will in part rely on the book, Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses (De Gruyter 2026), which emerged from the course.
Schedule
June 22 – July 28, 2026
Tuesdays 10 am – 12:40 pm EDT
Fridays 10 am – 12:40 pm EDT. Friday afternoon screenings and activities, 12:45 – 1:30 pm EDT.
Special Civic Commons presentations, Tuesday, July 28, 10 am - 2 pm EDT.
Tuesdays 10 am – 12:40 pm EDT
Fridays 10 am – 12:40 pm EDT. Friday afternoon screenings and activities, 12:45 – 1:30 pm EDT.
Special Civic Commons presentations, Tuesday, July 28, 10 am - 2 pm EDT.
Faculty
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Student Requirements
We will offer priority enrollment for student registrants participating in civic work over the summer and/or who will work in the Fall with on-campus or off-campus voting organizations, for student newspapers or student-focused media, or with other nonpartisan community organizations. A concurrent summer or Fall internship is not required to sign up for the course, and we encourage high school and college students from across the nation to apply. Those who do not currently intend to have such an internship in the summer or Fall will be encouraged to participate in some civic engagement work to be agreed upon with the course faculty and supported by partner organizations or home institutions. In addition to earning three transferable undergraduate credits from Bard College, students who successfully complete the course and choose to participate in civic engagement activities will receive a certificate issued by the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement on “Voting Rights & Democracy Training.” To earn a certificate, students must submit a supervisor’s form confirming hours of participation; minimally, students must complete 30 hours of engagement before September 1.With any questions, please contact
