By Sara Hinds
American Democracy Week 2025 was held for the fifth year from September 8-12 on the Crete campus, with programming centered around the theme of information, misinformation and disinformation.
What started as a passion project by Professor Tim Hill and Assistant Professor Amanda Irions in 2021 included more collaboration with community and campus partners this year. Hill and Irions led a number of 202-level liberal arts classes in discussions about democracy.
“Questions of democracy have perhaps not been as salient in 60 years as they are right now,” Hill said. “We greatly appreciate the chance to talk to students about why talking about those questions is important. Hopefully, they brought something away that will make America's future just that much brighter.”
Intro to Drawing 1 and Intro to Professional Practice students created political cartoons based on personal hot takes. Graphic design students researched the use of propaganda throughout history. The artwork and research were displayed in Nyrop Hall in conjunction with ADW.
Other events during the week included a Q&A session on current political events led by Hill and Travis Handler ’22, legal fellow at ACLU of Oklahoma; trivia co-hosted by Residence Life as part of their Dine :09 series; a propaganda workshop guided by Civic Nebraska, including Lily Sughroue ’17L; and a documentary screening of “Trust Me” about media literacy and bias.
The week encouraged dialogue among students, staff and faculty on divisive political topics while it also challenged audiences to identify how and where they receive information.
