The 2025 College of the Atlantic Summer Institute: Path Breaking celebrated exceptional individuals whose work and beliefs have changed how we see the world. Brilliant, brave, defiant, the subjects of our sessions exemplify the power of commitment and the need to seek new solutions. Many of the figures we heard from or about experienced great personal risk to their careers—some to their lives. They persisted. Their example serves as a reason to hope, a road map for change, a resetting of our moral compass.

The 2024 College of the Atlantic Summer Institute examined democracy in the United States during one of the most consequential years of our times. 

Struggles for democracy traverse our lives and society, from ballot boxes to inboxes, from the corridors of Congress to the halls of schools, from kitchen tables to city streets. Questions of democracy confront us in our debates over freedom of the press, voting rights, artistic freedom, struggles against authoritarianism, and in conversations about how to effectively engage with disagreement and conflict across a range of topics.

Elected officials, authors, analysts, and community organizers discussed what democracy means to them, the threats it faces, and how our individual and collective efforts can fortify democracy now and for future generations.

The 2023 College of the Atlantic Summer Institute: Reimagining Exploration, in conjunction with the National Geographic Society, brought together some o the greatest living explorers, writers, artists, and thinkers to help reimagine exploration.

Exploration has brought humans to our plant's greatest heights and deepest depths, pushing upon the boundaries between the known and unknown. It has taught us elusive lessons about our world and ourselves that we would have never learned otherwise. At the same time, exploration brings us face to face with dynamic and hard-to-resolve ethical questions about the impact of exploration on human and non-human communities. 

In conversations with those who have ventured into extreme landscapes, the deep sea , the human mind, the world of art, and other disciplines, the Institute  examined exploration in the broadest sense. It aimed to recast an approach to exploration that is rooted in inclusivity and reciprocity, while also preserving the magnificence and health of our planet and its people.

The 2022 Summer Institute: Our One and Only Ocean, held in collaboration with The National Geographic Society,  explored the beauty, promise, and perils of our greatest commons—the ocean. The Institute dove into the complex and interwoven challenges facing our ocean while spotlighting solutions and leaders that offer us hope. Institute sessions addressed climate change, deep sea exploration, fisheries and aquaculture, pollution and resource extraction, conservation, history, art, and inspiration.

The 2021 Summer Institute: Good Food and Food Fights, explored all aspects of food- production, policy, climate change, food justice, hunger, organics, nutrition, and the joy of eating and cooking.

The 2020 Summer Institute: November 3 - What's at Stake? explored the future of US diplomacy, climate change policy, income inequality, national security, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court, coronavirus, and other issues that were critical national topics leading up to the presidential elections in November 2020.

The 2019 Summer Institute: Art: Dissent and Diplomacy explored the way art challenge-es, promotes, undermines and advances political, social, religious and cultural norms.

The 2018 Champlain Institute: International Affairs, focused on national security, trade disputes, cyber warfare, terrorism, where democracy is functioning effectively, civil wars, Russia, North Korea, and other hotspots around the globe.

The 2017 Champlain Institute: American Democracy, focused on the state of American Democracy, the Constitution, and our collective future in these United States. Jeffrey Rosen,  a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and commentator on legal affairs, curated the 2017 Champlain Institute.  For over a decade Rosen served as the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. He has been described as "the nation's most widely read and influential legal commentator."