"This seminar examines the era of the American Civil War, with emphasis on its origins, scope, and consequences. Through lectures, class discussion, examination of historical texts, and visits to historic sites, the instructors and participants will examine the central role of slavery, the ways in which military and civilian affairs intersected and influenced one another, the question of what the war left unresolved, and how Americans have remembered the conflict. In many ways, the issues that divided the nation during the Civil War era continue to resonate today. This seminar will seek to make those issues clear, while at the same time providing a sense of the drama and tragedy of this tumultuous period."

This institute will focus "on abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, using upstate New York as a case study."

This institute will provide "educators the opportunity to engage in serious study and seminar-style discussion of basic issues of political theory and the values and principles of American constitutional democracy."

This institute will look at Jefferson from as many angles as possible to deepen understanding of his character and personality and thus to shed light on America’s founding and the social and cultural history of the early Republic. The Institute will take a topical approach, looking in depth at such subjects as education, intimate life, family, money, religion, science, and slavery. The seminar will including readings, lectures, discussions, visits to historic sites, and lesson planning.

This seminar will "explore the separation of powers as it applies to the allocation of responsibility between Congress and the president concerning national security and foreign policy powers," "by examining the foundations of the Framers' thought" and "selected executive-congressional debates as they arose during later military conflicts." The seminar will including readings, lectures, discussions, visits to historic sites, and lesson planning.

This seminar will focus on "close study of key scholarly readings and primary documents on the abolitionist movement, examining the evolution of the abolitionist movement from its beginnings during the Revolutionary era in Philadelphia through its radicalization in the years leading to the Civil War." The seminar will include examination of primary teaching resources, visits to historical sites, readings, discussion, journal writing, lesson planning, and lectures.

This seminar will "enhance participants' knowledge of Africa, the Middle Passage, and the people who arrived here in North America in slavery. They will do so by developing projects of their own choosing involving early Atlantic history, literature, or culture up to and including the early nineteenth century." Topics, week by week, will include "Organization: African Understandings," "More African Meanings," "Embarkation, Exile," "Remembering Africa in America," and "Research Results and Teaching Applications."

This seminar will "focuses on learning as much as possible about the events of 1989, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and the conflicting interpretations of those events, and on developing learning activities that will make it possible for educators to bring these events to life for their students. In addition to learning a great deal about 1989 and its aftermath, the participants who join us for the seminar will create Primary Source Activities that they can take home, use in their classrooms, share with colleagues and potentially publish on the website 'Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.'"

"The seminar will explore several key works by the political theorist, Hannah Arendt: 'Eichmann in Jerusalem,' 'The Origins of Totalitarianism,' and 'The Human Condition.' These works shed light on the problem of evil and the use of terror in the contemporary age, and provide a philosophical perspective on current debates about the use of violence to settle political conflicts, about the conditions of democracy, and about the scope and importance of human rights."