The University elevated the work of two political theorists into a new Center this summer. The Yale Center for Civic Thought, which opened on July 1, 2025, aims “to encourage thoughtful public discourse and civically responsible intellectual life.” Designed by Bryan Garsten and Stephanie Almeida Nevin, the new Center builds on a decade of work in the Citizens Thinkers Writers program and the Civic Thought Initiative.
Bryan Garsten, the Faculty Director of the Center, has written about challenges to public discourse since the early 2000s, especially in his book Saving Persuasion. While working to help found Yale-NUS College in Singapore, he led the writing of a report that made a certain sort of thoughtful conversation central to the goal of liberal education. He has also chaired Yale’s Humanities Program, revitalizing its link to its alumni and setting 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.
Stephanie Almeida Nevin, the Executive Director of the new Center and a lecturer at Yale, received her PhD in political theory from Yale’s Political Science department. Her research explores how philosophers have theorized the relationship between politics and education from antiquity to the present day. As co-founder of Yale’s Citizens Thinkers Writers program for students from New Haven public schools, Almeida Nevin played a pivotal role in the program’s design, implementation, and expansion into a nationally recognized initiative in civic thought and humanistic education. She also serves on the Leadership Council of the national Knowledge for Freedom Network and was responsible for designing and hosting its inaugural Faculty Institute at Yale in January 2024.
“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,” remarked Yale President Maurie McGinnis.