APSA’s Engaging America’s 250th Webinar Series
Making the Founding Documents
Relevant in the 21st Century
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
1:30 PM (ET) / 10:30 AM (PT)
Register Here
As the United States approaches the two-hundred-fifty-year anniversary of its experiment in self-government, join the American Political Science Association for a conversation exploring how political science scholars and educators engage the founding era and documents in their research, teaching, and public engagement.
Our expert panelists will discuss and spotlight how political scientists focusing on the founding era have been and continue to make the American Founding relevant to the public and students in today’s world.
This webinar explores 1776 as a momentous historical political development and an opportunity to engage civil society, develop a scholarly community, and teach the next generation of leaders the civic skills and knowledge they need to live as informed citizens.
Panelists:
- Paul Carrese, Arizona State University (moderator)
- Roosevelt Montás, Bard College
- Jeremy Bailey, University of Florida
- Jocelyn Evans, University of West Florida
Meet the Panelists
Paul Carrese
is Director of the Center for American Civics (Summer 2025 – present), and professor in the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, serving as its founding director 2016 to 2023. Formerly he was a professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, co-founding its honors program blending liberal arts and leadership education. He teaches and publishes on the American founding, American constitutional and political thought, civic education, and American grand strategy. His forthcoming book is Teaching America: Reflective Patriotism in Schools, College, and Culture (Cambridge, 2026).
Roosevelt Montás was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to New York as a teenager, where he attended public schools in Queens, New York. His book Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021) reflects on his experiences as a student and then a teacher at Columbia University, explaining how a liberal education transformed his life and why Great Books have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds. He is also author of Becoming America: Four Documents That Shaped a Nation and Why Their Ideas Still Matter (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2026) and coeditor of The Princeton History of American Political Thought (forthcoming, Princeton University Press, 2026). He speaks and writes on the history, place, and future of liberal education and his essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, The Point Magazine, The Financial Times, Aeon Magazine, The New York Daily News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets.
Jeremy Bailey is Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton School. Bailey is a scholar of American political thought and constitutional development, especially the political thought of the early republic (namely Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson) as well as constitutional controversies concerning executive power. In addition to several books, his scholarship has been published in American Political Science Review, History of Political Thought, Review of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, American Political Thought, American Politics Research, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Publius, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Critical Review. With Susan McWilliams Barndt, Bailey is editor of the American Political Thought book series published by University Press of Kansas.
Dr. Jocelyn Evans (Ph.D. Oklahoma, B.Sc. Berry College) is Professor of Political Science at the University of West Florida. She is author or coauthor of several books, including: Women, Partisanship, and the Congress, Congressional Communication in the Digital Age; One Nation under Siege: Congress, Terrorism, and the Fate of American Democracy; and Congressional Communication in a Digital Age. Her latest work is on the social meaning of civic space and includes: The U.S Supreme Court’s Democratic Spaces (2021) and The Last Full Measure of Devotion: Lincoln’s Monumental History in Bronze and Stone (forthcoming).
She is engaged in the national conversation on civics education, recently launching Civics Reader (co-edited with Jill Gallagher) by Soomo Learning to provide engaging content that introduces first-year college students to key principles of American politics through essential primary texts. Her text, Central Ideas in American Government, is now in its 15th edition with Soomo Learning. She is the winner of the national Jillian Kinzie Innovative Leadership for High-Impact Practices, the Pensacola Chamber PACE Award for Leadership in Education, and several university awards for distinction in research, teaching, and service.
APSA’s Engaging America’s 250th Webinar Series
Showcasing political science’s diverse range of scholarly and educational expertise, APSA’s “Engaging America’s 250th” Webinar Series explores the U.S. founding era’s political-historical meaning and legacy from a variety of angles.
Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association (APSA) is the leading professional organization for the study of political science and serves more than 11,000 members in more than 100 countries. With a range of programs and services for individuals, departments, and institutions, APSA brings together political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and occupational endeavors within and outside academe to deepen our understanding of politics, democracy, and citizenship throughout the world.
Please note the views expressed in APSA virtual workshops and webinars are those of the presenters and contributors alone, and do not necessarily represent the views of APSA. Please direct all general inquiries to membership@apsanet.org.
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