At IHS, we believe ideas have power, and that power grows when ideas reach the classroom.
Every year, thousands of students walk into college classrooms not just to earn a degree, but to explore the ideas that will shape how they think, live, and lead. That’s why one of the most meaningful measures of our impact is seeing how and where classical liberal ideas are showing up on syllabi across the country—and even around the world.
Thanks to Open Syllabus, we now have a powerful tool to help us do just that. Open Syllabus has aggregated millions of anonymized course syllabi from universities and colleges worldwide. With this treasure trove of data, we can track which books are being taught, by whom, and in what contexts—offering real insight into how IHS-supported scholars are influencing higher education.
The results are encouraging: 287 books by 125 IHS scholars have been assigned in courses globally. That means students—from first-year undergraduates to PhD candidates—are encountering freedom-advancing ideas in their coursework, often for the very first time.
And that’s where the spark happens.
When students engage deeply with ideas of liberty, spontaneous order, individual rights, and the institutions that support a free society, something clicks. They begin asking bigger questions, diving deeper into key thinkers, and carrying those ideas over time into careers in academia, business, public policy, law, and beyond. That’s the long game: not just inspiring intellectual curiosity, but fueling a lifelong pursuit that ripples out into the real world.
Take for example Michael Munger, a professor of political science at Duke University and longtime IHS partner. Mike has spoken at dozens of IHS events and recently hosted a “Buchanan Camp,” where he led 12 graduate students through an intensive week-long study of Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan.
According to Open Syllabus data:
- Munger has had five different books assigned in a total of 269 syllabi.
- His 1997 book Analytical Politics, co-authored with Melvin Hinich, alone has appeared in 196 classes.
- It’s been taught at top schools like The University of Texas at Austin (50+ times), Duke University (24), Princeton (6), and Loyola University New Orleans (2).
This kind of academic reach reflects something deeper: students around the world are being introduced to rigorous, freedom-focused scholarship through the classroom. It also helps us at IHS better understand where our work is landing—and how we can do even more.
With tools like Open Syllabus, we can:
- Identify scholars whose work is already making waves
- Help faculty partners discover new teaching materials
- Spot books that could resonate with general audiences
- Support ongoing professional development for professors
- And measure real, data-driven impact from our programs and grants
By placing classical liberal scholarship into the academic mainstream, we’re helping ensure that the next generation doesn’t just encounter these ideas—they run with them.
Because when students are inspired by freedom in the classroom, they take that inspiration with them into think tanks, boardrooms, legislatures, and lecture halls. And that’s how the ideas continue to spread.
By supporting IHS, you invest in scholars at a formative stage in their careers—not only with crucial financial support, but also with inspiration and connections to other like-minded and driven intellectual collaborators that they can’t find anywhere else.
