Our center brings together scholars, thought leaders, and community members throughout South Carolina and beyond to address critical challenges facing our state and nation. Through events, publications and academic programs, we will help South Carolina students and community members develop the skills required for civic leadership.
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Our People
We are led by USC faculty and a board of nationally known advisors.
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Our Mission
Strengthening civic education and public discourse in South Carolina and beyond.
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Our Ideas
Discover core ideas that shaped American history and animate the center’s work.
Upcoming Civic Leadership Events
September 12: Cornel West and Robert P. George
The center’s first keynote event brings together two scholars well known for their friendship across disagreement. Cornel West and Robert P. George will speak at the University of South Carolina on September 12, 2025 about their longstanding collaborations and their recent book, Truth Matters: A Dialogue on Fruitful Disagreement in an Age of Division, which models intellectual engagement and constructive disagreement.
The time, location and ticket information will be released soon.
September 17, Constitution Day: John Witte Jr.
John Witte Jr., the Woodruff Professor of Law at Emory University, will present a Constitution Day lecture on the origin and meaning of the First Amendment’s religious freedom protections. The following day, he will speak about recent Supreme Court decisions and their implications for religious liberty. Witte is the faculty director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory and a leading specialist in legal history, human rights, religious freedom, marriage and family law, and law and religion.
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In these divisive times, we can change the narrative with the skills, grace and intelligence
that USC has long cultivated in its students.
