Edwards Hall and online
The 2024 Honors Colloquium, “Democracy in Peril”, will provide a valuable
opportunity for scholars, experts, and the broader community to engage in a thoughtful and informed dialogue on this issue. It can help raise awareness of the challenges facing democracy today and highlight the importance of promoting democratic values and institutions. By understanding the causes and consequences of democratic backsliding, we can work towards building stronger and more resilient democracies that are better equipped to weather the challenges of the 21st century.
The main themes of the colloquium will be:
- U.S. and global trends
- Consequences of democratic erosion
- Role of political polarization and populism
- Impact of future disruptors on democracy: ecological and AI
- Potential solutions
Coordinators: Marc Hutchison, Brian Krueger, Elizabeth Mendenhall, and Ashlea Rundlett
Speakers
| Date | Topic | Speaker | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9/17/2024 | Populism and the crisis of democracy at home and abroad | Zack Beauchamp | Zack Beauchamp is a Senior Correspondent at Vox, covering global politics and ideology, with a focus on the crisis of global democracy and the rise of populism. |
| 9/24/2024 | How democracies die | Daniel Ziblatt | Daniel Ziblatt is a Political Science professor at Harvard University specializing in democracy and historical political economy, well known for his book "How Democracies Die,” which spent many weeks on the NYT bestseller list. |
| 10/1/2024 | Race and democratic backsliding in the U.S. | Andrew Ifedapo Thompson | Dr. Andrew Thompson is a Political Science Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on how attitudes on racial demographic change can shift how Americans think about democracy and can give rise to stronger anti-democratic views. |
| 10/8/2024 | Global cases of democratic decline | José Cheibub | Dr. José Cheibub is a Political Science Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Focusing on democratic institutions, his work offers a global, comparative perspective on the emergence and decline of democracies, informing the debate on contemporary democratic challenges. |
| 10/22/2024 | Role of militaries in democratic decline | Risa Brooks | Risa Brooks is a Political Science Professor at Marquette University. Her research critically examines the relationship between military institutions and democratic governance, particularly how militaries can influence or undermine democratic norms. |
| 10/29/2024 | Disinformation and the erosion of public faith in government | Naomi Oreskes | Dr. Naomi Oreskes is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. She is a world-renowned earth scientist, historian, and author whose works examines the role of science in society and how the intentional disinformation campaigns have stymied climate action and eroded the American public’s faith in government. |
| 11/12/2024 | Repression and the decline of global human rights | Christian Davenport | Christian Davenport is a Political Scientist at the University of Michigan, he is a founding scholar in the quantitative study of state repression and is known for his work on the connection between human rights and democracy. |
More details on our speaker lineup will be available soon.
Special Events
To be announced.
Learn more about the URI Honors Program.