(Washington, DC) The 2013 Frontiers of Democracy conference (“Innovations in Civic Practice, Theory, and Education”) is coming together nicely. It’s scheduled for July 18-20, 2013 in Medford, MA. Detailed information and the registration form are available on the conference website. As samples of what you will experience, here are four of our “Short Takes” speakers:

• Jeff Coates is Strategic Initiatives Associate at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He has worked extensively on the measurement of civic health, including the foundation’s “Soul of the Community” research. Coates previously worked with the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership, where he collaborated with more than 50 nonprofits to develop strategic plans for long-term recovery.
• Michael Davis is the Chief of Police for Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He has been in law enforcement for twenty years and is a passionate advocate of community engagement in crime prevention. Chief Davis is one of a handful of police chiefs from around the United States to be a member of the 2011-2014 Harvard Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety. Chief Davis was also the recipient of the 2012 Gary P. Hayes Award from the Police Executive Research Forum.
• Dan Moulthrop is the new Executive Director of the City Club of Cleveland. He was previously the “Curator of Conversation” and a co-founder of Civic Commons, a project aimed at using the Internet and social media to create productive, civil dialogue on public issues. A longtime media veteran, Moulthrop was the founding host of “The Sound of Ideas,” ideastream’s award-winning public affairs program.
• Teresa Younger is the Executive Director of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW).  Prior to joining the PCSW, Younger was the Director of Affiliate Organizational Development at the American Civil Liberties Union National Office, where she assisted affiliates throughout the country with organization and management issues.  Before that, Younger became the first woman and the first African American to serve as Executive Director of the ACLU of Connecticut.

These speakers and others will provoke the audience with 10-minute talks, and there will be plenty of time for discussion.

Also, here is the agenda for the “Mini-Conference on Civic Studies,” which is one track of activities for July 19 (running opposite other discussions). It has been organized by alumni of the Summer Institute of Civic Studies at Tufts:

8:30    Opening Remarks

• Karol Soltan and Peter Levine, Co-directors and Co-founders of the Summer Institute of Civic Studies

8:45    Civic Studies: What is it? What can it become? What research questions are pressing? What do we need to know? How do we find it out?

• Tim Shaffer – Director, Center for Leadership and Engagement, Wagner College
• Peter Levine – Director, CIRCLE, Tufts University
• Ian Ward – Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland

Moderated discussion including discussants and attendees

Closing Remarks

• Moderator: Elizabeth Gish, Assistant Professor, Honors College, Western Kentucky University

10:15    Break

10:30    Prisons and crime as venues of civic work and topics for civic research/social scientific phronesis

• Andrew Nurkin – Executive Director of Princeton AlumniCorps, Princeton
• Peter Pihos – doctoral candidate, University of Pennsylvania
• Additional discussant to be announced

Moderated discussion including discussants and attendees

Closing Remarks

• Moderator: Joshua Miller

12:00    Lunch

12:45    The Theory and Practice of Civic Studies: What do we mean by theory/practice, practitioners/academics? How can we think and write better at these intersections?

• Karol Soltan – Associate Professor, The Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
• Jen Sandler – Director, University Alliance for Community Transformation, UMass Amherst
• Elizabeth Gish – Assistant Professor, Honors College, Western Kentucky University
• Moderated discussion including discussants and attendees

Closing Remarks

• Moderator – Tim Shaffer

2:45    Break
3:00    Interactive Capstone: Advancing Civic Theory and Practice

Reflecting on today’s panels and discussion, what do we need to move forward?

Who is this “we”? What networks or actions will sustain this work?

Fifty years in the future, what would a healthy Civic Studies look like?

• Facilitators – Liza  Pappas, City University of New York and Alison Staudinger, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay