Teachers: bring exciting and vetted experts on democracy to your classroom—for free!
As an addition to our Speakers Bureau program, which provides vetted humanities experts to schools free of charge, we’ve selected seven speakers that help high school students engage with and understand democracy, from political polarization to voting rights to protest and more. We have also developed accompanying slide deck presentations, activities, and a teaching guide in accordance with Washington State OSPI standards for Social Studies for teachers’ use, free of charge.
Humanities Washington speakers are scholars all chosen not only for their expertise, but also for their ability to inspire discussion with people of all ages and backgrounds. Speakers Bureau talks last around an hour, with a Q & A period that encourages discussion across perspectives.
Intended for students in grades 9–12 and educators, the objectives of the Democracy Forward initiative are:
➔ Increase access to, and engagement with, humanities topics at high schools for students
➔ Invite the gathering and bridging of communities
➔ Facilitate deeper thinking into one’s role in a healthy democracy through a humanities lens
➔ Consider how democratic processes and principles show up in our everyday lives
The presentations:
If you are interested in booking one or many of these speakers, please contact our program manager Sarah Faulkner at sarah@humanities.org and view our hosting guidelines here:
In addition to offering these presentations, we have developed accompanying PowerPoint presentations and a Teaching Guide for high school curricula.
Download teaching guide and presentations
Questions? Please contact Sarah Faulkner at sarah@humanities.org. We’re happy to help!