Chiesman Center For Democracy

Welcome from our Director, Julia Hellwege, Ph.D.

Thank you for engaging with us at the Chiesman Center for Democracy. We are a Center that is housed in the Dept. of Political Science at the University of South Dakota whose mission is to offer civic education, engagement, and research to our state. As part of this mission, we offer educational resources, including sponsoring the Kids Voting program and offering grants to K-12 educators, to promote engagement, we have collaborated with South Dakota News Watch on a public poll and a community conversation effort called Engage SD,  we have also produced a podcast with the help of SD Public Broadcasting called Dakota Dialogues, we have sponsored a vast variety of research on civics and democracy that you can read about on our research project page. In March of each year, we bring academics and practitioners together for a Democracy Conference. 

Please spend some time on our page to explore our efforts!