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Annual Theme

2025 Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, NHD’s 2025 theme will be Rights & Responsibilities in History. This year’s theme invites you to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. 

The key to this theme is addressing BOTH rights AND responsibilities. These are two powerful forces in history, but one does not work without the other.

Rights: Freedoms or privileges that individuals possess as human beings or as individuals in a society. These include:

  • Civil Rights 
  • Political Rights
  • Social Rights 
  • Economic Rights
  • Human Rights

Responsibilities: the expectations of individuals as members of society

  • Legal Responsibilities
  • Civic Responsibilities
  • Social Responsibilities
  • Ethical Responsibilities

In Alaska, we often hear about our rights as they relate to the land around us. Some examples include:

  • Subsistence Rights
  • Land-use Rights
  • Resource Rights

With those rights, Alaskans might consider connected responsibilities like environmental protection and conservation.

With Alaska’s diverse peoples, communities, and economies, balancing these rights and responsibilities is an ongoing project. 

Alaska History Topic Ideas for 2025: “Rights and Responsibilities in History”

Past Themes