Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Time: 7:30 pm (EDT) - 9:00 pm (EDT)
The United States Constitution was ratified in 1789; however, the document’s meaning has not always been clear.
This is because many debates over constitutional interpretation were settled during the Constitutional Convention. Sometimes our nation’s founders did not agree on constitutional meaning. Other ties, the Constitution’s ambiguity comes from our country facing contemporary issues that the founders never would have imagined.
In this series of presentations on American Constitutional History, Dr. Francene Engel, Scholar for the Maryland Council for Civics and History Education, will explore major events in history that shaped the document’s meaning and affected the trajectory of our constitutional democracy. The first program will discuss the development of judicial review through the landmark Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison (1803). We also examine the evolution of the due process clauses of the 5th and 14th Amendments.
Joining Dr. Engel will be our guest moderator, Dr. Marcie Taylor-Thoma, Director of Maryland Council for Civic & History Education; State Coordinator of We the People and Project Citizen; Instructor at American University; Chair of Annapolis Friends of Lafayette, and Historic Annapolis Trustee.
The Historic Annapolis 2025 Virtual Lecture Series is offered free of charge thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor. If you enjoy this program, we hope you will consider becoming a member or making a donation today to support Historic Annapolis and our mission to connect all people with our shared history.
Cost: FREE
Presenter Bio:
Dr. Francene Engel received her PhD in political science from the University of Southern California. She has taught courses in American constitutional law, civil rights and liberties, constitutional theory, women and the law, and American government at the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, Baylor University, and the University of Southern California. She was also a Fulbright Scholar teaching in Poitiers, France.
Dr. Engel has worked in civic and history assessments, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress Exam in Civics. She has served as a civics education consultant for the Maryland State Department of Education, Virginia Civics, James Madison’s Montpelier, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Educational Testing Services, the American Institutes for Research, and the Center of Civic Education.
She enjoys the challenge of making complex constitutional issues understandable to everyone.
Guest Moderator:
Dr. Taylor-Thoma coordinated social studies instruction, curriculum, assessment, policy, and professional development programs for over twenty years at the Maryland State Department of Education in Baltimore. She taught secondary social studies in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland for ten years before her tenure in state education. She recently retired to the Maryland Council for Civic and History Education, where she coordinates history and civic programs such as the History Teacher of the Year, We the People…, the James Madison Legacy Program in Maryland, and international democracy programs in Russia and Armenia. She completed her doctoral studies at the College of Notre Dame in Maryland in 2008 in leadership and policy. Her research interests include studying the relationship between effective civic education policy and student learning in the United States and abroad. Dr. Thoma considers herself a strong advocate for social justice and serves as the Past-President of the Middle States Council for Social Studies. Her most recent project has been the editing and interpreting of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. She is an adjunct professor at American University, and a member of the Board of Trustees with Historic Annapolis.