iCitizen Updates
Welcome to the nearly 100 new American citizens who participated in the June 15, 2009 Naturalization Ceremony at Colonial Williamsburg. We'd like to know your thoughts about becoming a naturalized citizen. Respond here.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon Wood's idea of citizenship is one of equality. And the Brown University history professor says today’s partisanship government isn’t any worse than it was in the 1790s. What do you think?
Being a citizen is part of your identity. Mike Hartoonian, University of Minnesota, says that wealth, knowledge and justice are all a part of citizenship. But his definitions of those terms may be different from yours. Let us know if you agree with Creating Better Citizens.
A student at the College of William and Mary, Matt Beato ran for city council in Williamsburg, Va., in 2008. Certainly younger than “an average” candidate, Matt decided that the local city government could be more effective if it accurately represented all of its constituencies. It turns out Matt didn’t win the election, but he thinks he made a statement for young people in Williamsburg.
“Enlightened citizen” is redundant; a citizen understands the aesthetics of issues, according to Mike Hartoonian, University of Minnesota. Find out what he, Terrence Guay, Penn State University, and Jim Davis, Social Science Education Consortium, have to say about debate, democracy, and citizenship. 
What makes you a citizen? Is it more than a birthright? iCitizenForum spoke with educators Terrence Guay, Penn State University; Mike Hartoonian, University of Minnesota; Jim Davis, Social Science Education Consortium; and Ted Green, Webster University, to hear their thoughts on citizenship. Are you a citizen? Find out.
Will the current generation be able to fulfill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of peace and equality? We spoke to the Reverend Lennox Yearwood, founder and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, about how new forms of engagement such as "hip hop politics" can help eradicate division and partisanship in the 21st century.
U.S. citizens have the right to participate in the political process, and when they do, it’s hoped they do so with deliberation. Is there conflict between participation and deliberation? Watch our interview with Professor Diana Mutz in which she discusses citizen participation and a polarized society.
Diana C. Mutz is the Samuel A. Stouffer Chair in Political Science and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication and the director of the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
