Summer Seminars

Summer Seminars

2025 Center for Science & Culture Summer Seminars

Program Overview


Launched in 2007, the CSC Summer Seminar program has now had the pleasure of hosting hundreds of students and professionals from around the country — and world — who wish to follow the evidence where it leads. The program is led by prominent ID researchers and scholars from a variety of disciplines who are equipped to explore a wide range of questions related to the origin of the universe, life, and human consciousness. Presentations and discussions help equip participants with the tools to breathe new purpose into the scientific enterprise, as well as to explore the many social implications of scientific theories.

Seminar Topics


Historically, the Summer Seminar program has included two seminars offered concurrently: the Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences, designed for students and professionals in the natural sciences and the history and philosophy of science, and the C.S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society, designed primarily for students and professionals in the humanities, social sciences, law, and theology. These two seminars share a core curriculum but diverge at times to focus on more specialized topics.

U.S. participants will be asked to choose one of the below seminars based on their degree programs or areas of interest. Core topics will be offered jointly to both sets of participants, while specialized topics will be offered separately to each seminar.

International participants will cover a wide range of topics from the natural and social sciences and humanities and will meet jointly as a single seminar. Additional resources may be available for those wishing to dive deeper into specialized topics.

2025 Format & Dates


In-Person Seminars for U.S. Students (Colorado Springs, CO)

  • Choose between two seminar tracks focusing on either the natural sciences or the social sciences & humanities
  • January 1 | Application opens
  • March 31 | Application closes (applications will be reviewed during the following weeks; contact kkavanaugh@discovery.org with questions)
  • May 2 – June 22 | Self-paced online course featuring special video lectures, readings, and discussion boards
  • May 10 | Introduction to seminar directors and fellow participants via Zoom
  • June 23 – 29 | In-person lectures, discussions, and activities led by seminar faculty at Glen Eyrie Castle & Conference Center in Colorado Springs, CO

Online Seminar for International Students

  • A single seminar track covering the natural sciences as well as social sciences & humanities
  • January 1 | Application opens
  • March 31 | Application closes (applications will be reviewed during the following weeks; contact kkavanaugh@discovery.org with questions)
  • May 9 – July 9 | Self-paced online course featuring special video lectures, readings, and discussion boards
  • May 16 | Introduction to seminar directors and fellow participants via Zoom
  • July 10-12 | Online question & answer sessions with seminar faculty via Zoom

Application Requirements


The Summer Seminars are designed primarily for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students, but each year we also reserve spaces for a cohort of professors, scientists, teachers, pastors, and other professionals.

Student applicants must be college juniors or seniors or already in graduate school. Professional applicants may be postdocs, professors, scientists, teachers, pastors, or other professionals. Space is limited and admittance is competitive.

Cost


There is no application fee or tuition, and those admitted to the program will receive digital course materials free of charge, including books, articles, and other resources. For U.S. participants attending in person, lodging and meals will be provided and a limited quantity of need-based travel scholarships may be granted upon request.

How to Support the Program


Help us educate the next generation of scientists and scholars!

If you know of students who may be good candidates for this program, please help us by referring them to this website and encouraging them to apply as soon as possible.

Also, please consider making a special donation to help fund the cost of the seminars. Your support of the Summer Seminar program will allow us to educate a new generation of scientists, scholars, and educators who have the desire, the vision, and the determination to breathe new purpose into the scientific enterprise and influence its self-understanding in ways that will benefit both science and humanity.

About the Sponsor


This seminar is sponsored by the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute. The Center’s mission is to advance the understanding that human beings and nature are the result of intelligent design rather than a blind and undirected process. We seek long-term scientific and cultural change through cutting-edge scientific research and scholarship; education and training of young leaders; communication to the general public; and advocacy of academic freedom and free speech for scientists, teachers, and students.

The Center is a program of Discovery Institute. Founded in 1991, the Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on research, education, action, and cultural renewal. Headquartered in Seattle, it brings together a growing global network of scholars, scientists, and policy experts. 

The Institute investigates the life-changing possibilities of a universe brimming with information and intelligent design. It has a special interest in exploring how science and technology can advance free markets, propel new discoveries, illuminate public policy, and support human dignity and the metaphysical foundations of a free society.

Discovery Institute upholds the twin ideals of human equality and equal treatment under the law articulated in America’s founding documents, and we affirm Martin Luther King’s desire for a society where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”  Accordingly, we reject social Darwinism, “scientific” racism, and other efforts to demean people because of their race, ethnicity, sex, or economic status.