JACKSONVILLE, AL — As originally reported by Brett Buckner with JSU’s media department, Dr. Benjamin Gross, director of Jacksonville State University’s Center for Leadership and American Principles, recently served as a guest speaker and participant at an international conference in Germany focused on civic education and challenges facing Western democracies.
The Fostering U.S.-Euro Democratic Resilience in Civic Education, or FEUR, conference brought together scholars, experts and practitioners from the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Participants examined civic and political education in democratic societies, including democratic backsliding and other contemporary challenges.
“My invitation ensured that a voice from Alabama, a voice outside the coasts and from the South, was present in this important work that will shape the future,” Gross said. “As a collaborator in this arena, I brought forth the foundational principles of American government and Western Thought as core to the civics renaissance.”
The initiative grew from a cross-national partnership between Thinking Nation and the Institute of Didactics of Democracy at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Organizers designed the project to examine challenges and perspectives in civic and political education from an international, comparative perspective.
Participants represented a range of educational institutions and organizations, including Harvard University, the Bill of Rights Institute and CIRCLE at Tufts University.
“It was heavy hitter, after heavy hitter, after heavy hitter,” Gross said. “And I guess that means Jacksonville State is a heavy hitter, too. That’s one of my main takeaways.”
Gross delivered the opening presentation and was one of four featured speakers during the three-day conference.
“I was humbled and honored,” Gross said. “They allowed me to set the agenda.”
The conference also included an opportunity for participants to hear directly from German high school students about their views on democracy and its future.
“The job there … was not to talk,” Gross said. “We were not there to lecture. We were not there to inform. We were just there to hear their answers to questions: ‘What makes you optimistic about democracy? What are you fearful about democracy? What do you think the future is going to be?’ We were just there to listen and learn.”
Gross said some of the German students were already familiar with Jacksonville State University because of the Marching Southerners.
“They came up to me and said, ‘Oh, now you are the person from Jacksonville State University,’” Gross said. “I said, ‘Okay.’ And they said, ‘You guys have that amazing marching band … the Marching Southerners.’”
According to Gross, bringing participants from several countries together helped highlight both differences among democratic societies and challenges they share.
“It was very insightful and enlightening the way we respected each other’s ideas,” Gross said. “We all did as much listening as we did speaking.”
Participants are now working on a white paper reflecting the conference discussions. Gross said the group agreed the document would not require participants to reach a single, uniform position.
“I think one of the best things that came out of this was that whatever we produced doesn’t have to be a uniform statement,” Gross said. “There is room for dissent, for disagreement, for concurrence, for multiple perspectives. We can show even in the white paper the messiness of collaboration, of democracy, of working together.”
A follow-up meeting is planned in North America in 2027, with participants expected to shift their focus from identifying challenges to considering potential solutions.
“The diverse approach is a beautiful thing because it engages with the complexities of democracy,” Gross said. “It understands from the very beginning that the thing we are working with is not a one-size-fits-all, and so we’re going to have to put different ideas on the table and have those different ideas compete with each other to figure out what the best options are.”
