The Democracy Project at Bennington College

http://www.bennington.edu/education/interdisciplinary/courses/democracy_project.htm

In the fall of 2004, Bennington College introduced the Democracy  Project, a groundbreaking approach to undergraduate education that  reorganizes the traditional disciplines around the subject of democracy.  The Democracy Project aims to design, implement, and ultimately model  for other colleges an undergraduate curriculum that develops and  supports--in fact, relies upon--the abilities of students to connect  their thinking at the College with their actions out in the world.

Within the intellectual environment of this project students explore and  experience democracy as a diverse, contested, historical, and ongoing  approach to human conflict and cooperation. This area of study of  immense (and growing) importance remains astonishingly undeveloped in  our colleges and universities. The absence of a developed curriculum in  democracy is not a reflection of a dearth of interest or experience on  the subject of democracy itself. What has yet to happen is to exploit the  rich capacity of democracy to inform a curriculum equivalent to that  provided by any of the traditional academic disciplines.

Bennington has a long and distinguished history as an innovator in  higher education deeply committed to the traditions of liberal education  but ready to depart from the conventions that are associated with higher  education in order to fulfill those traditions. Such flexibility is  especially critical in pursuing the Democracy Project. The last several  decades have made one thing clear: It will take fresh ways of addressing  curriculum if the big questions are to resume a privileged position  throughout the course of the undergraduate experience and if we are to  embed within the totality of our academic experience the urgencies and  values of civic life.