Center for Constructive Alternatives
Hillsdale’s Center for Constructive Alternatives (CCA) is the sponsor of one of the largest college lecture series in America.
CCA seminars are held four times each year. Students are required to complete one CCA seminar during their undergraduate years. They may elect to enroll in more.
Lectures are open to the public, and out-of-town guests are welcomed.
Contact Information
Upcoming CCAs
CCA I: Understanding China
Since the Communist Revolution of 1949, China has emerged as a world power that poses a threat to the West. This first CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year will consider the history, culture, and challenge of China.
Find out more about CCA I: Understanding China »
CCA II: Socialism
The idea of socialism is ancient. Organized socialist movements took form in Europe in the nineteenth century, and socialism emerged as a dominant political ideology in many places around the world by the twentieth century. This second CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year, co-sponsored by the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series, will consider socialism, its practice over time, and its resurgence today.
Find out more about CCA II: Socialism »
CCA III: American Generals: Military Command and Character
Xenophon wrote that a successful general “must be resourceful, active, careful, hardy, and quick-witted; he must be both gentle and brutal, at once straightforward and designing, capable of both caution and surprise, lavish and rapacious, generous and mean, skillful in defense and attack.” This third CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year will consider the lives and characters of some of America’s greatest generals.
Find out more about CCA III: American Generals: Military Command and Character »
CCA IV: The Westerns of John Ford
Asked who were the greatest American film directors, Orson Welles answered: “John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” The recipient of a record four Academy Awards for Best Director, Ford’s career extended from the earliest days of Hollywood through the 1960s. This fourth CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year will focus on Ford’s westerns, and consider what they reveal about our country and ourselves.
Find out more about CCA IV: The Westerns of John Ford »History
Over thirteen hundred speakers have participated in CCA seminars since 1972, including statesmen like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher; political scientists like Harry V. Jaffa and Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr.; historians like Stephen Ambrose and Martin Gilbert; novelists like Madeleine L’Engle and Tom Wolfe; journalists like Brit Hume and Michael Medved; scientists like Edward Teller; filmmakers like Peter Bogdanovich; economists like Nobel Laureate James Buchanan and Walter Williams; foreign policy experts like Jeane J. Kirkpatrick; theologians like Malcolm Muggeridge and Michael Novak; athletes like Peggy Fleming; and businessmen like Steve Forbes and Dave Thomas.
Archives
Videos of past CCA seminars have been recorded and can be accessed through the links below.