2023 Summer School
It Takes a Movement:
Social Mobilization and Rebuilding Democracy
July 3–9, 2023
CEU, Budapest, Hungary
Application Deadline:
March 5, 2023
Around the world, democracies are breaking down. Many are being dismantled from within while others face attacks from without. In both cases, the issues underlying democracy’s erosion are not superficial but deeply entrenched and complex. Rebuilding democracy—fortifying its institutions and advancing its project—takes a movement from below.
“It Takes a Movement” re-examines the relationship between social mobilization and democracy by attending to the stunning complexity and diversity of 21st-century protests and social movements. The course employs a global perspective, comparing social mobilizations across different democratic contexts, tracing transnational connections and fissures, and establishing common features. The course fosters a dialogue among students, activists, and scholars assembled from all over the world. Students will leave with a deeper understanding of the fraught relationship between democracy and social mobilization as well as new questions and ideas about how it might be productively addressed.
This one-week course features leading humanities and social sciences experts, including the renowned philosopher Charles Taylor and the influential political theorist Prathama Banerjee.
We invite applications from humanities and social science graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and junior faculty who have received their Ph.D. within the last 5 years. Applications from advanced undergraduate students will also be considered.
The course will fund a minimum of twenty students and reserves one third of available spaces for applicants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Once admitted, all costs related to participation will be covered by the organizers. For U.S.-based students, airfare and ground transportation will be covered only up to USD 500.
