{"id":711,"date":"2026-05-21T22:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=711"},"modified":"2026-05-21T22:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:08:19","slug":"class-materials-help-show-how-unc-school-of-civic-life-pursues-its-lofty-mission-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=711","title":{"rendered":"Class materials help show how UNC School of Civic Life pursues its lofty mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s School of Civic Life and Leadership has a specific vision of civics education: Western, Christian, canonical and free-speech forward.<\/p>\n

Read more Justin Gainey adds two NC locals to upcoming roster. Who\u2019s joining the Pack<\/a><\/p>\n

The school\u2019s mission is lofty.<\/a> It aims to \u201crenew higher education\u2019s public purpose \u2014 educating citizens who not only understand the freedoms our Constitution guarantees, but who also have the courage and capacity to use those freedoms well.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sees itself as \u201cbuilding a model for universities across the nation, grounded in open inquiry, civil discourse, and the pursuit of meaning and truth,\u201d according to its mission statement on the school\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

The News & Observer reviewed 21 syllabi from the school \u2014 newly available as public record under UNC System policy<\/a> \u2014 as part of a wider project looking at students\u2019 experiences in the School of Civic Life and Leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a desire to look at Western civilization and revive liberal arts, revive liberal education,\u201d SCiLL professor Rita Koganzon told The N&O. \u201cThat could be considered conservative in academia but does not map on to partisanship at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when contemporary thinkers appear in SCiLL syllabi, they tend to lean right.<\/p>\n

Students read JD Vance\u2019s 2025 speech \u201cAmerican Statesmanship for the Golden Age<\/a>\u201d and the 2019 right-leaning document \u201cNational Conservatism: A Statement of Principles<\/a>.\u201d They read Roger Scruton\u2019s \u201cHow to be a Conservative<\/a>.\u201d They read \u201cThe Tragedy of Liberalism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say no left-leaning thinkers appear. Students read Saul Alinsky, Karl Marx, Martin Luther King Jr. and documents of the Black Panther Party.<\/p>\n

But some of the only contemporary left-leaning texts in the syllabi are in Koganzon\u2019s course called \u201cLeft, Right, and Center.\u201d In that course, students read American author Ta-Nehisi Coates and anthropologist and activist David Graeber. That week on the syllabus \u2014 titled \u201cThe Current Left: Socialism and Identity Politics\u201d \u2014 Coates and Graeber are paired with \u201cThe Willful Blindness of Reactionary Liberalism\u201d by writer Osita Nwanevu.<\/p>\n

But on days focusing on libertarianism, traditionalism and neoconservatism, for example, there is no accompanying critique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all pretty fanatically committed to depoliticizing the classroom and making it a place where ideas can really intersect,\u201d SCiLL professor Flynn Cratty told The N&O. \u201cThere\u2019s this enormous, centuries-old conversation going on, and we want our students to be a part of it and to feel confident and knowledgeable as they speak to one another and also interact with this tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn Cratty<\/p>\n

The school has a focus on Great Books: classic texts that are traditionally seen as containing the basic building blocks of Western culture. Across courses, students read Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Augustine, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Tocqueville, the Federalist Papers and the list goes on. Deep analysis of these primary texts is central: multiple syllabi ban the use of secondary sources in papers.<\/p>\n

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The school also focuses on personal, lived engagement with these thinkers of old. In \u201cPursuing the Good Life,\u201d students are asked to explore their values. In \u201cThe Christian Story,\u201d students are visited by a Christian convert to hear her experience. In \u201cBud Light to Colin Kaepernick: Dialogue in the Market Place,\u201d students are taught \u201cthe tools of a more perfect mind and soul for each of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNC sophomore and SCiLL minor Nad\u00e8ge Sirot says the experience of reading Plato in a classics course is much different than in a SCiLL course.<\/p>\n

\u201cA classics course will focus on who Plato was, what informed his writing, what sorts of manuscripts and translations exist,\u201d Sirot said. \u201cA SCiLL course would focus on really big picture questions like: \u2018What does Plato\u2019s analysis of a just society entail about human nature, and is this an understanding of human nature that is conducive to how we ought to live our lives?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the syllabi require students to reckon with Christian thought, assigning either Biblical scripture or the work of Christian thinkers. The religion is intellectually central \u2014 in \u201cThe Christian Story,\u201d but also in classes like \u201cPursuing the Good Life,\u201c \u201cWhat is the American Character?\u201d and \u201cNatural Law and Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some professors outside of SCiLL wonder what\u2019s lost when students are presented with this narrow focus on the Western canon. Erik Gellman, a history professor at UNC, sees a kind of false nostalgia in the desire to go back and focus solely on the works of authors who are \u201cWestern, white and male.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate many of these historical texts but teaching them on their own does not reflect the breadth and depth of scholarly work of the past half century in the social sciences and humanities fields,\u201d Gellman said.<\/p>\n

There are courses in SCiLL, too, that break out of the traditional mold of college classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael and Palestine on Campus: Courageous Conversations\u201d has six professors, and each class session is a discussion among faculty, guests and students. \u201cLabcoats and Legislators: Science, Technology, Policy, and Politics\u201d is co-taught by Republican Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee and Kirk deViere, former Democratic state senator and a current commissioner in Cumberland County.<\/p>\n

Most courses include a stated commitment to free expression and a ban on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Read more Ebola declared a health emergency of international concern. Is NC at risk?<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 5:00 AM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review of course descriptions of UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Civic Life and Leadership classes shows a Western, Christian canon focus, free-expression stance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nClass materials help show how UNC School of Civic Life pursues its lofty mission - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=711\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Class materials help show how UNC School of Civic Life pursues its lofty mission - 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