Study after study shows that civic literacy and knowledge about the Constitution is at an all-time low. The IACH is committed to addressing this crisis by hosting a summer institute for middle and high school history teachers. Teachers read and discuss primary documents in the American constitutional tradition and receive a stipend for their participation. The teacher institute is supported by the Horizon Foundation.
Application submission will open in mid-January for the June 2026 Summer Teacher Institute. The Institute will be held on OU's Norman campus on Sunday, June 7th through Thursday June 11th, 2026.
2025 Summer Teacher Institute Program
Sunday June 22nd: The Declaration of Independence
Session taught by Professor Jeremy Bailey of University of Oklahoma
4:00 pm Session I
5:30 pm Reception
6:00 pm Dinner in the IACH Suite.
Monday, June 23rd: The Ancients
Sessions taught by Instructor Darin Davis, Professor Samuel Huskey, and Professor Ben Watson of University of OKlahoma
Tuesday, June 24th: Thomas Jefferson- Republican Founder
Sessions taught by Dr. Dustin Gish of University of Houston
Wednesday, June 25th: John Adams
Sessions taught by Professor Robert Ross of Utah State University
8:15 a.m. Breakfast/provided
9:00 a.m. Session I
10:30 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. Session II
12:30 pm Lunch/provided
1:30 pm Session III
3:00 pm Leisure time/on own for dinner
Thursday, June 26th: Montesquieu and The Federalist Papers
Session taught by Professors William Sellinger and Jeremy Bailey
of University of Oklahoma
8:15 am Breakfast
9:00 am Session I
10:30 am Break
11:00 am Session II
12:00 pm Dismissal/Boxed lunch
Meet Our 2025 Experts
Jeremy Bailey
University of Oklahoma
Jeremy D. Bailey holds the Sanders Chair in Law and Liberty and is the Director of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. He teaches in the Constitutional Studies program, and his research interests include the political thought of the early republic as well as constitutional controversies concerning executive power. His latest books include The Idea of Presidential Representation: An Intellectual and Political History (University Press of Kansas, 2019) and James Madison and Constitutional Imperfection (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Darin Davis
University of Oklahoma
Darin Davis is an instructor of Greek, Latin, and classical culture courses and serves as the advisor for OU’s classical honor society, Eta Sigma Phi. Darin received his M.A. in Classical Studies from Tulane University and taught high school Latin for seven years. Before becoming a full-time instructor at OU, Darin also served as an adjunct Latin instructor at both UCO and OU.
Dustin Gish
University of Houston
Dr. Gish received his interdisciplinary doctorate from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas (2004), with a concentration in politics. He earned a master's in politics at the University of Dallas (1995), and a master's in Liberal Education at St. John's College in Santa Fe (1992).
Samuel Huskey
University of Oklahoma
Samuel Huskey is a professor in the Classics and Letters department. He teaches courses on ancient Greek and Roman history, literature, and philosophy in the original languages and in translation. His research specialties are Latin poetry, philology, textual criticism, especially at the intersection of digital technology and traditional scholarship. He is also the director of the Digital Latin Library.
Robert Ross
Utah State University
Robert Ross is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science within the School of Social Sciences at Utah State University. His scholarly work centers on American political development, constitutional theory, and the evolution of representative institutions in the United States.
William Selinger
University of Oklahoma
William Selinger is a political theorist and historian of political thought whose research focuses on the modern history of representative democracy. He is the author of Parliamentarism: From Burke to Weber (Cambridge University Press, 2019), winner of the Montreal Political Theory Manuscript Award. The book traces efforts in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain and France to secure parliamentary control over the executive and foster genuine deliberation, central to the emergence of liberalism. His forthcoming book with Princeton University Press is a comprehensive study of Montesquieu’s life and thought.
Charles (Ben) Watson
University of Oklahoma
Charles (Ben) Watson is a classical philologist specializing in Cicero, ancient rhetoric, and Roman law. He earned his B.A. from Harvard University and his M.St. and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, all in Classical Languages and Literature. His forthcoming volume in the Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries series (2025) presents the first scholarly introduction and commentary on Cicero’s Divinatio in Caecilium, accompanied by a new critical edition based on recently discovered manuscript and papyrological evidence.
