A collaboration with The New School & the European Democracy Institute
 
Year: <span>2026</span>

Year: 2026

Small Acts of Repair

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Through personal encounters in Poland, Israel, and the United States, Jeffrey Goldfarb (Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology Emeritus at The New School for Social Research) reflects on the power of small acts of repair in times of political violence and moral devastation. Drawing connections between historical memory, contemporary protest, and everyday gestures of solidarity, it argues that even fragile acts of care can sustain hope and ethical responsibility in dark times.

Why We Are Founding the European Democracy Institute

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Berit Ebert (Professor at Bard College Berlin) and Boris Vormann (Professor at Bard College Berlin) discuss the foundation of the European Democracy Institute as a new co-host of the Democracy Seminar — as well as its role as a vital center for research, public debate, and educational initiatives on democracy in the 21st century.

Reaction to Backsliding in Brazil and the United States

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Brazil and the United States have convergent and divergent trajectories regarding the relationship between democracy and the rise and contention of autocratic populist leaders. In both countries, leaders with this profile came to power—Donald Trump, in the United States, in 2017 (and again in 2025), and Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil, between 2018 and 2022. This convergence, however, contrasts with the divergence in the response of political institutions, especially …

Memory, Slavery, and the Struggle for Truth in American Museums

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In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” aimed at rooting out “corrosive ideology” in the Smithsonian institutions and other federal sites of memory and history. The order accuses sites like the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which has extensive exhibits on slavery and segregation, of making a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our …