Jonathan Holloway, President & CEO of the Luce Foundation, greeted guests attending the Civics in Higher Education at Tufts University in April, 2026. He shares his own career journey and how he sees the opportunity for colleges and universities to play a transformative role in the lives of those who do not come from college-going traditions.

Paris Alston, host of the GBH show Rooted, moderates a discussion about loneliness, technology, and what it means to truly connect in the age of artificial intelligence, with Dr. Jen Hartstein, psychologist, and Oluwaseun Sanwoolu, PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Kansas.

Four university professors discuss a variety of curricular programs for civic education. They discuss the importance of introducing primary sources, ground their teaching in great works of literature and why they introduce their own lived experiences in to the classroom. They emphasize the importance of developing cultural competency to make historic sources relevant, the importance of students making time for thinking and reflection, and the expectations they maintain for their classes that each person can grapple with challenging works from the past, and in fact it is imperative that they do so.

Political scientist Josiah Ober moderates the discussion.

Some institutions are deeply engaged with their neighboring communities, and they understand that partnerships provide opportunities for civic learning while generating knowledge and other public goods. Three educators shared the details of their local civic involvement.

The only university-wide college of its kind, the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life studies and promotes the civic and political engagement of young people at Tufts University, in our communities, and in our democracy.

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, in partnership with the Alliance for Civics in the Academy and GBH, hosted a one-day national summit in April 2026 for faculty, administrators and students to examine the state of civics in higher education. Summit speakers and panelists recorded by the GBH Forum Network and presented here include Amy Binder, Mary Clark, Michael Clune, Dayna Cunningham, Andrew Delbanco, Fonna Forman, Bryan Garsten, Leslie Garvin, Caroline Attardo Genco, Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert, Jonathan Holloway, Jessica Kimpell Johnson, Peter Levine, Marisol Morales, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Josiah Ober, Eboo Patel, Mindy Romero, Jenna Silber Storey, Leela Strong, Amber Wichowsky, and more.More moments from the summit will be published here soon. Please check back. Photography by Laurie Swope/Tufts University

Join the Ford Hall Forum screening of Living in Pryde in Boston's theater district at The Modern Theater on Washington St. Filmmakers and residents featured in the film will convene after the screening for a discussion with the audience.

Living in Pryde is a powerful short documentary following residents of The Pryde—New England’s first LGBTQ+ welcoming, affordable senior housing community. As LGBTQ+ rights face renewed challenges, the film highlights a generation that came of age without basic legal protections. Residents draw on a lifetime of resilience, reflecting on surviving the AIDS crisis, fighting for same-sex marriage, and coming out as transgender. Located in a former public school in Boston’s Hyde Park, The Pryde is both a refuge and a target—a place where community becomes a powerful force in the ongoing fight for civil rights and equality.

Improbable Patriot: The Secret History of Monsieur de Beaumarchais, the French playwright Who Saved the American Revolution, a conversation with Suffolk University historian Robert Alison and Iris De Rode.

In 1776, the playwright and inventor Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732–1799) conceived an audacious plan to send aid to the American rebels. What’s more, he convinced King Louis XVI to bankroll the project and single-handedly carried it out. By war’s end, he had supplied Washington’s army with most of its weapons and powder, though he was never paid or acknowledged by the United States. To some, he was a dashing hero, a towering intellect who saved the American Revolution. To others, he was a pure rogue, a double-dealing adventurer who stopped at nothing to advance his fame and fortune. In fact, he was both, and more: an advisor to kings, an arms dealer, and an author of some of the most enduring works of the stage, including The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville. Now in paperback, Improbable Patriot introduces readers to an unrecognized power player in the Revolutionary War.

Join us at the GBH Studio in the Boston Public Library or watch the live stream to participate in this important conversation. Revenue from the Fair Share Amendment, passed in 2022, is dedicated to spending on transportation and education in the Commonwealth, but three years after the bill's passing, where do things stand? GBH New transportation correspondent Jeremy Siegel moderates a discussion.

Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder of Generation Hope, Susan Blum, anthropologist at University of Notre Dame, and Paul LeBlanc, visiting scholar at Harvard Graduate School of Education, join moderator Anya Kamenetz to navigate discuss the question: What is college for today—and what is at stake for our democracy if its purpose erodes?