Lifelong Learning Seminars
About
Attend a Lifelong Learning Seminar, a learning vacation unlike any other. Spend time with some of Hillsdale College’s most distinguished professors exploring the great ideas and principles that built and sustain our country. Discuss the ideas that have created more freedom and raised the hopes and expectations of millions, not only in this country but throughout the world.
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Relive higher education as it used to be, in a place where it still is.
Lifelong Learning Seminars let you relive the experience of higher education as it used to be, in a place where it still is. It’s college life as you remember it: the sharing of insights, the give-and-take of lively discussion, the camaraderie of peers. It’s a fresh look at the enduring values of our society in the Hillsdale way, free of the trendy ideological clichés that dominate thinking on so many other campuses today. It’s a vacation unlike any you’ve had—the learning experience of a lifetime, to complement a lifetime of learning.
Lifelong Learning Seminars offer a week of exciting activities. Guests share intense discussions with Hillsdale faculty members and fellow program participants, delving deeply into the sources of American liberty. Guests are welcome to take advantage of varying opportunities for fun, recreation, and fitness in our state-of-the-art health education and sports complex. All seminars include delicious meals and top-rated accomodations.
Upcoming Seminars
March 21 - 24
The Federalist Papers
This seminar will explore such important themes as the problem of majority faction, the separation of powers, and federalism.
June 3 - 9
The Civil War
This seminar will consider the Founders on slavery, the “positive good” school, the rise of sectionalism, the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution in wartime, and Reconstruction.
June 17 - 23
Constitutional Issues and Controversies
This seminar will contrast the Founders’ views with the contemporary view of topics such as the family, civil rights, free speech, foreign policy, and religious liberty.
June 17 - 23
The Modern Relevance of the Ancient World
This interdisciplinary seminar will consider the ancient world and its relevance today in terms not only of history, but also religion, philosophy, and literature.
July 8 - 14
Economic Theories and Controversies
This seminar will consider the theories of free market economics, theories that oppose the free market, and important economic controversies of the twentieth century and of today.
July 8 - 14
The Great Conversation in Western Literature
This seminar will examine the great conversation in Western literature, beginning in ancient Greece and Rome and continuing through Renaissance Europe, Elizabethan England, and the United States.
July 22 - 28
Islam and the West
This seminar will investigate Islam from historical, religious, and political perspectives, as well as consider Islamic art and architecture.
July 29 - August 1
The Constitution and American History Since World War II
This family seminar—designed for junior high- and high school-age children and their parents or grandparents—will consider the Cold War, LBJ’s Great Society, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, the administrative state, post-1960s liberalism, and the Reagan revolution.
August 6-9 & August 10-13
Historical Issues and Controversies
This seminar will examine topics related to the history of America and the world since the turn of the 20th century, with a special emphasis on statesmen such as Calvin Coolidge, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher.
October 31 - November 3
The Constitutional Convention
This seminar will consider why the Convention was called, the debates over the Constitution, and the Convention’s lasting significance.
Locations
We offer three locations to enjoy a Lifelong Learning Seminar – on the beautiful Hillsdale campus, nestled in the rolling farm country of southern Michigan; surrounded by the natural setting of our Rockwell Lake Lodge located at the G. H. Gordon Biological Station in Luther, Michigan; and in the heart of our nation’s capital at our Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Capitol Hill, just minutes from the Supreme Court, the Senate office buildings, and the historic Union Station.