Summer Programs

The James Madison Program's Convivium at Oxford

Dates: August 24th–30th
Application Deadline: March 7th, 2025

The Madison Program's Convivium at Oxford is a weeklong seminar series held in one of England's oldest universities for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors from Program's Undergraduate Fellows Forum. Participants will read and discuss a variety of texts, all related to the themes of love and friendship.

The Convivium will be held at Jesus College, where participants will be housed for the duration of the program.

N.B.: this program is held exclusively for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors from the Madison Program's Undergraduate Fellows Forum.

Faculty

Shilo Brooks, Executive Director of the James Madison Program and Lecturer in Politics, Princeton University
Adam Thomas, Assistant Director of the James Madison Program and Lecturer in Politics, Princeton University

Apply

Applications are open until March 7th, 2025. Please email [email protected] if you have questions.

The James Madison Seminar on the Principles of American Constitutionalism

Dates: July 6 - 12, 2025
Application Deadline: February 23, 2025 (11:59 p.m. EST)

Formerly known as Principles of American Politics, this seminar for upper-level high-school students and rising college first-year students will be taught as a one-week seminar. Participants will study the fundamental questions of equality and liberty in American political life. What have Americans meant by these principles from the founding to the present? What is their relationship with one another, with political power, with law, and with the private sphere of civil society? Are they in tension or in harmony? Readings will be in primary sources including The Federalist and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, as well as other basic texts from American history.

The seminar will be held off-campus at the Chauncey Conference Center where participants will be housed for the duration of the program. Opportunities will be available to visit historic Princeton and the campus.

The deadline to submit an application is February 23, 2025. Selected students will be notified by late March.

This seminar is funded by the Bouton Law Lecture Fund.

Faculty

S. Adam Seagrave, Associate Professor, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University
Sarah Beth Kitch, Associate Director, Civitas Institute, The University of Texas at Austin

Program Fee

$350 (includes room and board, and course materials)

Apply

Applications have closed. Please email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

The James Madison Seminar on the Moral Foundations of Law

Dates: July 13 - 19, 2025
Application Deadline: March 2, 2025 (11:59 p.m. EST)

This is a one-week seminar for current law students, graduate students who are studying jurisprudence in related fields (e.g., political science, philosophy), and recent law school graduates. Under the direction of Professor Gerard V. Bradley of Notre Dame Law School, the seminar covers some of the most contested areas of inquiry in legal philosophy today, including legal positivism, practical reason, human good and positive law, morals legislation, pluralism, crime and punishment, property, and rights and duties. The seminar is designed as an intensive weeklong program investigating the relationship between sound norms of critical morality and civil law. Seminar discussions will examine key contemporary legal debates, such as religious freedom and conscience, beginning and end of life issues, and marriage legislation. Sponsored for the last dozen years by the Witherspoon Institute, this seminar is now sponsored by the James Madison Program and is funded by the Bouton Law Lecture Fund.

Current law students, graduate students who are studying jurisprudence in related fields (e.g., political science, philosophy), and recent graduates still early in their careers are encouraged to apply.

Faculty

Gerard V. Bradley, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
John M. Finnis, Professor Emeritus of Law & Legal Philosophy, University of Oxford; Biolchini Family Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Notre Dame Law School
Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program, Princeton University
The Honorable Justice Bradley W. Miller, Court of Appeal for Ontario, Canada

Program Fee

$350 (includes course materials)

Apply

Applications have closed. Please email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

Statesmanship in American History

Dates: July 20 - 25, 2025
Location: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Participants: 8th–12th grade teachers
Application Deadline: March 7, 2025
Notification Deadline: April 4, 2024

Supported by the Jack Miller Center

In cooperation with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and hosted and funded by the James Madison Program, the Statesmanship in American History summer seminar will allow up to 20 high school teachers to participate in a weeklong professional development event on the study of statecraft. The seminar will be taught by Dr. Allen Guelzo, Dr. Shilo Brooks, Dr. Matthew J. Franck, Dr. Diana Schaub, and Nathan McAlister.

Statesmanship, or statecraft, is the pursuit of politics at the highest level, beyond the levels of organization, mobilization, planning, and leadership. In these turbulent and polarized times, Americans need statecraft more than ever, and, more than ever, we need to know what it is, how it can be recognized, and whether it can be cultivated. From George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass to the present day, we will consider who our statesmen have been, and what our students need to know to understand the difficult art of political statecraft.

Applications will be reviewed by Gilder Lehrman Institute and James Madison Program staff.

To apply, click here. Please email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

For more information, please see the Gilder Lehrman website.