National History Day 2025: Rights & Responsibilities in History: Overview

Use this LibGuide to find sources for your National History Day project.

To continue the celebration of our 50th anniversary, NHD’s 2025 theme is Rights & Responsibilities in History. To study rights and responsibilities in history, we must ask questions. Who decides who has rights? Does everyone have the same rights? Who decides on the limits individuals should or should not have? Why? What led to establishing certain rights, and to whom were they given? How have people, governments, or institutions decided what parameters should be set to enforce responsibilities? How are such decisions justified?

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.

NHD offers five creative categories in each division. The documentary, exhibit, performance, and website categories offer both individual and group participation options. The paper category allows individual participation only. Groups may include two to five students. Choose a project category that compliments your talents. 

Explore the categories by looking at their respective checklists and evaluation forms as well as examples. 

Use the links in this box to generate ideas for your National History Day project:

• The topic should be of interest to you.
• The topic should clearly fit this year's theme, Frontiers in History.
• The topic should be in-depth and narrow in scope. It is better to focus on one issue in detail than to cover many issues superficially.
• The topic should reflect the availability of primary and secondary sources.