Digital Dialogue: USA

Digital Dialogue: USA gives A-Level Politics students a unique opportunity to speak directly with two former Members of the US Congress in a live video conference call.

About the programme

Digital Dialogue: USA is part of the Congress to Campus UK programme, which brings former Members of the US Congress to the UK to engage students and wider audiences in conversations about contemporary US politics.

This November, four Digital Dialogue sessions will take place with two former Members of Congress - one Democrat and one Republican. Each session is hosted over Zoom, with several A-Level or Scottish Higher/Advanced Higher Politics classes taking part.

The programme is delivered in partnership with the US Association of Former Members of Congress, and coordinated by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library, with support from the British Association for American Studies and the US Embassy London.

How it works

Digital Dialogue: USA takes around two teaching hours to deliver: one hour for preparation and one hour for the Dialogue session itself.

Preparation

Teachers receive resources to help students research the former Members of Congress and prepare questions.

Students submit questions in advance to The Politics Project, who will select a balanced set across a range of topics relevant to A-Level Politics.

A short test call will be arranged to check the school/college’s video conferencing facilities.

Dialogue session

Several A-Level Politics classes join together on Zoom and each class has the chance to ask three to four questions to the former Members of Congress.

“I learnt a lot about the beliefs of the political parties and different ideologies within them. It was fascinating hearing first hand from US politicians. I think it is easy to stereotype Americans and different parties so it was really interesting to hear about [the Former Members of Congress] personal thoughts on lots of different issues.”

—Student, Stroud High School

Sign up

Participation in Digital Dialogue: USA is free of charge, but places are limited. Completing an expression of interest does not guarantee a place.

The programme includes:

A live Digital Dialogue session with two former Members of Congress.

Learning resources to support student preparation.

Guidance and support from The Politics Project.

Technical support for the video conference call.

Interested?
You can sign up here!

This link will take you to an Expression of Interest form. It just takes 2 minutes to fill out, and one of our team will be in touch.

Expression of interest