Professor of Humanities and of Political Science Bryan Garsten opens the new Center for Civic Thought on July 1, 2025. The center’s purpose is “to encourage a thoughtful public discourse and a civically responsible intellectual life.”
Professor Garsten coordinated the creation of a core curriculum for Yale-NUS College in Singapore and was lead-writer of a report, A New Community of Learning, about how that college approached fundamental challenges in liberal education. He chaired Yale’s Humanities Program, revitalized its link to its alumni, and set it on a path to successfully expand both the Directed Studies program and the major in the Humanities. He has been a member of the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education and the Harvard Higher Education Leaders Forum.
At Yale, he co-founded Citizens Thinkers Writers, a program for New Haven high school students, in 2016, and the Civic Thought Initiative in 2019, evolving into the Center for Civic Thought in 2025. He is a member of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy and of the Civic Collaboratory of Citizens University.
“The new Center for Civic Thought acknowledges the important role Yale plays in helping to cultivate habits of thought and support free expression, on campus and beyond, that are so essential for the future of higher education and our nation.”