Youth voting rights book wins 2026 Ness Award
The American Association of Colleges and Universities announced that Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses, edited by Acting President Jonathan Becker and Scholar in Residence Yael Bromberg and published by De Gruyter Brill, has won the 2026 Frederic W. Ness Book Award. The annual prize goes to the book that best illuminates the goals and practices of a contemporary liberal education. It will be formally presented to the editors on January 21, 2027, during the opening plenary session of the AAC&U Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.
Youth Voting Rights examines the history of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment and the ongoing struggle to protect and expand voting rights for young people in the United States. Through case studies of Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bard College, the book explores the role that students, colleges, and universities—particularly HBCUs—have played in the fight for suffrage and the evolution of voting rights. Combining historical, legal, and contemporary perspectives, it draws lessons from these experiences for efforts to defend youth voting rights and strengthen democratic participation today.
Jonathan Becker stated, “At a time when democracy and the civic mission of higher education are under assault, Youth Voting Rights tells an important story of how students, faculty, staff, and institutions can stand up to defend the most foundational of democratic rights, the right to vote. All of the authors are thankful to AAC&U for the recognition of our work, particularly in telling the stories of how young people have exercised agency to effect change.” Becker is acting president of Bard College, where he is also professor of political studies and executive director of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement. He serves as vice chancellor of the Global Higher Education Network for the 21st Century, a global alliance of colleges and universities committed to expanding access to higher education and strengthening collaboration across borders.
Yael Bromberg stated, “We are deeply humbled to receive this award, and immensely grateful to our fellow authors whose vital expertise brought this narrative to life. By tracing the evolution of voting rights and the unfulfilled promises of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, Youth Voting Rights for the first time examines legal precedents secured by college communities, and positions youth and their multigenerational allies as constitutional architects. We examine the power of organizing, advocacy, research, and litigation to catalyze hope and civic agency today.” Bromberg is a constitutional and voting rights litigator and principal of Bromberg Law LLC. A nationally leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, she teaches democracy law at American University Washington College of Law and is a Scholar in Residence at Bard College.
The 2026 Ness Book Award winner was selected by a committee of higher education leaders: Gilda Barabino, former president, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Dolores Duran-Cerda, former provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, Pima Community College; Lynn Pasquerella, president of AAC&U; Jocelyn Vickers, director of public service, Auburn University; and Kathleen Woodward, committee chair, Lockwood Professor in the Humanities, professor of English, and director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. Lynn Pasquerella said, “At a moment when questions about democratic participation, civic responsibility, and the health of our democracy are so consequential, Youth Voting Rights makes an important contribution to the conversation. The committee was especially gratified by the book’s emphasis on the power of young people to catalyze social change.”
To ensure accessible inclusion in classroom curricula, Youth Voting Rights is designed and available as a free, open educational resource. Additional open-educational resources, including TEDx-style lectures by the book’s authors and contributors, short documentaries, and teaching case studies, can be found on the landing page of a collaborative course, The Struggle for Voting Rights at Colleges, which accompanies the book project at cce.bard.edu. The course was co-designed by faculty from Bard College, North Carolina A&T, Prairie View A&M University, and Tuskegee University, along with Yael Bromberg.
Chapter authors include Lisa Bratton, associate professor of history at Tuskegee University; Erin Cannan, vice president for civic engagement and managing director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College; Jelani Favors, vice president of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute; Alexander Goodwin, assistant professor of political science at Southwestern University; and Michael J. Nojeim, professor and interim department head of political science at Prairie View A&M University. Additional contributions were made by Melanye Price, endowed professor of political science and inaugural director of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice at Prairie View A&M University, and Simon Gilhooley, associate professor of political studies at Bard College. Jelani Favors said, “It was an honor to contribute to this project that interrogates how youth and idealism have served as significant catalysts in the preservation and expansion of American democracy. The study of historically black colleges and universities offers a particularly unique example of how the academy can and perhaps should play a critical role in the defense of fairness and equity within our society.” Michael J. Nojeim said, “The burning question the United States faces right now is who can we call upon to arrest the country’s dangerous lurch toward authoritarianism. Youth Voting Rights offers a powerful answer: America’s young voters.” Lisa Bratton said, “I wrote this chapter to show that a school created for people just one generation out of enslavement could have a tremendous impact on African American voting rights in spite of the many obstacles to their political and economic independence.”
Established in 1979 to honor AAC&U’s ninth president, the Frederic W. Ness Book Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the understanding and improvement of liberal education. Recent award winners include The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom, edited by Valerie C. Johnson, Jennifer Ruth, and Ellen Schrecker; Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis by Bryan Alexander; The New College Classroom by Cathy N. Davidson and Christina Katopodis; and Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Jarvis R. Givens.
Becker and Bromberg’s work is also featured in Liberal Education, AAC&U’s quarterly journal. Becker’s article “Give them Ballots” and Bromberg’s “A Detour for Democracy” appear in the Spring 2026 issue.
David Hogg, president of Leaders We Deserve and co-founder of March For Our Lives, said, “This book is an essential look at the hard-fought and hard-won voting rights victories of young Americans. College students and young people have always been at the forefront of change in America. It's no wonder anti-democratic forces are cracking down on university campuses—where organizing, protest, and youth-led movements are born.” Marc E. Elias, partner at Elias Law Group LLP and founder of Democracy Docket, said, “This is an exceptionally important book on the too-often dismissed problem of voter suppression laws aimed at young voters. I highly recommend.” Four 20-minute documentaries by Seamus Heady and Maria Pankova cover each institution’s history of defending student voting rights, complemented by teaching case studies written by Charles Euchner. These resources, along with short video lectures, are available on the course landing page and address topics including Gomillion v. Lightfoot at Tuskegee, Symm v. United States at Prairie View A&M, gerrymandering at North Carolina A&T, and polling place disputes at Bard College.
