Global Studies Outreach Summer Workshop for Teachers: The Future of Democracy

Applications due April 29, 2022. Apply today!

August 1-3, 2022

“More than a quarter of the world’s population now live in democratically backsliding countries. Together with those living in outright non-democratic regimes, they make up more than two-thirds of the world’s population.” 

The Global State of Democracy 2021: Building Resilience in a Pandemic Era, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, p. vii

The end of the Cold War and related collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 seemed like a declaration of victory for democracy; in the immediate years that followed there was a flourishing of democratic growth across the globe. Today, those victory bells seem a distant memory, as an increasing number of democratic regimes face democratic erosion and backsliding, and non-democratic regimes deepen their authoritarian tendencies. The US, known as the cradle of democracy and once considered a beacon of democracy for the rest of the world, is not immune to this challenge. Exacerbated by a number of global phenomena – economic inequality, a global pandemic, mis/disinformation, government corruption, and more – democratic erosion is affecting nations worldwide with no clear international consensus on how to respond. At this summer’s Global Studies Outreach workshop, we will consider the future of democracy using global case studies as well as the American comparative perspective.

This year's workshop will take place in-person* at Harvard University on August 1-3, 2022. An additional full-day's content will be offered virtually during the last week of July, 2022 (exact dates TBA). The cost to attend the workshop is $75. Please note that we do not have funds to subsidize travel to the workshop. 

Apply Now! The deadline to apply is April 29th. 

For more information, visit the Harvard Global Studies Outreach website.