Democracy Lab FIG

Find Your People Right When You Get to Mizzou

Part of MU’s slate of first-year learning communities, the Kinder Institute Democracy Lab Freshman Interest Group (FIG) provides incoming students passionate about history, politics, and law with an opportunity to form an intellectual community in the classroom and to bond outside of it throughout their first two semesters on campus.

FIG Students in the Classroom

In the fall and spring semesters of their first year on campus, FIG students have seats saved for them in small, discussion-based seminars that explore the revolutionary, constitutional, and intellectual origins of democracy in the US and around the globe:

GN_HON 2245H: Revolutions (Honors FIG, Fall)
CNST_DEM 2450: Intellectual World of the American Founders (Non-Honors FIG, Fall)
GN_HON 2246H: Constitutions (Honors, Spring)
CNST_DEM 2100: Revolutionary Transformation of America (Non-Honors, Spring)

In addition, all FIG students take an “Intro to Constitutional Democracy” one-credit hour seminar in the fall, as well as Kinder Institute Director Jay Sexton’s lecture on the global history of the Civil War (HIST 2150).

FIG Students outside the Classroom

Whether it’s a day-trip to St. Louis, a study hall at Uprise Bakery, or a murder mystery dinner on the fourth floor of Jesse Hall, our team of undergraduate event programming fellows, led by FIG Director Dr. Jordan Pellerito, design a dizzying array of extracurricular activities that allow FIG students to start forging lifelong friendships outside the classroom as soon as they get to campus.

Getting Introduced to the Kinder Institute

Another perk of being in the FIG is that students are introduced right away to Kinder Institute faculty and all of the other undergraduate opportunities that run out of the fourth floor of Jesse Hall, including our DC-based study away programs and our study abroad classes in South Africa and Oxford.

Undergraduate Programs

Applying to the Democracy Lab FIG

Incoming students of any major are eligible to participate in the FIG, and signing up is as easy as choosing the “Kinder Institute Democracy Lab” or “Honors Kinder Institute Democracy Lab” option on the FIG Preference Form that’s part of Mizzou’s application. From there, we make sure that everyone is co-enrolled in the fall FIG classes, so participants can hit the ground running as soon as they get to campus.

FIG Scholarships

Signing up for the FIG unlocks access to need- and merit-based scholarships that are exclusive to first-year students studying at the Kinder Institute. All scholarship applications run through Mizzou’s central Scholarship Universe platform, and anyone interested can use the link below to find out more.

Scholarship Information