Overview of Montpelier Weekend Seminars

The Montpelier Weekend Seminars are a unique professional development opportunity for social studies teachers and other civic educators.  Participants in a Montpelier Weekend Seminar will live and study on the grounds of James Madison's Montpelier, one of the central sites of the American constitutional founding.

Each of the Montpelier Weekend Seminars encompass a consistent core of knowledge about the principles of American constitutionalism — popular sovereignty, fundamental law, good government, full citizenship, and human liberty. They also highlight the systematic and persisting contrasts between Federalist and Antifederalist approaches to the Constitution. But each will approach these central concepts from a different angle, in order to highlight the various transformations achieved by the constitutional Founding. The tabs above link to the specific programs.

Participants will receive a collection of primary documents in advance of the seminar, specific to the content of each program, which will be the basis of most discussions. They include writings by James Madison, sections of The Federalist Papers, selections from Antifederalist writers, and other fundamental documents. Each seminar includes an intensive session on ways of reading a document of political or constitutional theory. Though certain key documents are discussed in all of the seminars, other selections will vary along with the four themes.