Speak Up Democracy is co-led by three Loyola faculty members, who are part of the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education:

Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Political Science

Dr. Blajer de la Garza is Assistant Professor of Political Science. Dr. Blajer de la Garza is a political theorist, studying lingering inequalities in democracies. Her research combines canonical debates of political philosophy with ethnographic methods, seeking to understand how political principles and institutions are (mis)translated into everyday politics and ordinary speech.

Meghan Condon, Political Science

Dr. Condon is Associate Professor of Political Science. Her research examines the politics of inequality in the US and the relationship between education and democratic engagement. Her first book, The Economic Other: Inequality in the American Political Imagination, was published in 2020 by the University of Chicago Press

Jon Schmidt, School of Education

Dr. Schmidt is Clinical Assistant Professor of Education. He directs community school partnerships for Loyola, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the School of Education on teaching and learning in diverse, urban communities, and conducts research on place-based engagement of universities in communities, race equity approaches in public schools, and civic education in urban contexts.

For any inquiries, please contact our Program Coordinator, Maxine Tewsley, mtewsley@luc.edu or reach us at SpeakUpDemocracy@luc.edu.

Speak Up Democracy will enroll a small cohort of rising seniors from Chicago Public Schools.

• Summer program: in 2023, the summer program will run from Monday, June 12^th to Friday, June 23^rd, 2023. Students will be housed in Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus dormitories but will spent the last two days in Loyola’s Retreat and Ecology Campus.
• Year-long program: participating students will commit to engaging in monthly meetings for the rest of the 2023-2024 academic year. During those meetings students will use what they learned during the summer to hone civic action strategies and craft a policy proposal to present to an elected official in the spring. Students will also be supported and guided as they apply for college.

Participating students will investigate the connection between speech and political power, ruminating on whose voices are heard (and silenced) in a democracy. This summer program is animated by a central question: how should we speak to one another in a democracy? To address this question, we will read some classical texts of political thought, starting with Plato’s Crito, a dialogue reconstructing Socrates’ refusal to escape Athens after being sentenced to death. Instead, Socrates insists on facing punishment.

Our texts will be organized around three themes: the citizen and the law, freedom and responsibility, and critical democracy and action. Together, these transformative texts provide a glimpse at enduring debates in political thought about the duties and responsibilities we have toward others; the role of the law in mediating those interactions; and the ways in which we can engage with others we may disagree with but share a community with.

These discussions will be led by Loyola faculty members and a small team of advanced undergraduate students. Our goal is to provide a rigorous yet engaging academic space to discuss these transformative texts in ways meant to convey to students what a liberal arts education is about, why we cherish it, and how can these discussions provide guidelines for everyday civic life. We also hope that Speak Up Democracy will be a space where students can forge connections and lasting friendships with other high-school students.

Accommodations, meals, readings, and transportation to Loyola’s LUREC will be covered by Speak Up Democracy.

Loyola joins other higher education institutions with similar programs, all generously supported by the Teagle Foundation’s Freedom for Knowledge Initiative. Each one of these programs engages with deep questions about democratic life, civic responsibility, and lives of purpose. Knowledge for Freedom Programs, such as Speak Up Democracy, combine academic discussions of the texts that have grappled with these questions since Ancient Greece and apply them to contemporary challenges and new dilemmas.

The main application for the 2023 cohort of Speak Up Democracy has closed. For the 2024 Speak Up Democracy program, please come back to this webpage in January 2024. Our application will open then.

For any questions, contact us at SpeakUpDemocracy@luc.edu.