the Center for Transcultural Studies
Upcoming event
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement
Friday, June 5, 2026
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CST
Featuring:
Brandon M. Terry (African and African American Studies, Harvard University)
Respondents:
Martha Biondi (Black Studies, Northwestern University)
Chris A. Chambers (Political Science, University of Pennsylvania )
Ainsley LeSure (Political Science & Africana Studies, Brown University)
Convened by Dilip Gaonkar (Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
For similar events, go to our Questioning the Present page
Recent event
Symposium
Law, State, and Democracy
DECEMBER 10-12, 2025, THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF PARIS
Featured Projects
Questioning the Present
The Questioning the Present project was launched in 2020 as a response to the contemporary political, economic, and social conditions in light of the COVID-19 crisis.
Democratic Agendas Network
In 2017, the CTS launched a new network-building project titled Democratic Agendas Network as a framework for integrating projects and dialogues related to the career of democracy and its futures.
Summer School
This program at the Central European University is co-funded by the Open Society Foundations, the Center for Transcultural Studies, the Center for Global Culture and Communication, and the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs (Northwestern University, Evanston, USA).
Publications
Public Works
Public Works is the CTS's international publications project. It includes the contemporary paperback series Public Planet Books (a collaboration with Duke University Press) and CTS-sponsored books. Benjamin Lee is Public Works' executive director.
Working Papers
Dig into the CTS’s intellectual history by checking out the working papers that CTS-affiliated scholars wrote between 1986 and 1992.