The session recording will be archived on the site until June 25th, 2023

This session was streamed but not recorded

Curated Track: 

Description:

While popular commentators, the public and some academics assume that US democracy is strong, the reality is that a more open and participatory democratic structure is a relatively recent phenomenon. US history is replete with legal and extra-legal attempts to restrict the right to vote, hinder broader participation and weaken the legal foundations of US democracy. These attempts are often related to broader efforts to protect the political position of whites within the overarching political framework of US democratic governance and are seen as extending the power of white racial rule within the US. With the election of Donald Trump and his efforts to maintain power in the face of a democratic election loss and a focus on US democracy has taken on added urgency and potentially points to the ways the structure of US democracy is threatened by reactionary and anti-democratic forces bent on returning the US to a time and position when democracy was less expansive or representative of a multi-cultural US society. This session aims to bring a diverse set of scholars together to explore the present crisis and to examine the broad currents of US democratic governance and structure in an effort that exposes this current moment to critical scrutiny and also begins a process to outline research trajectories that take seriously the fragility of US democratic governance and actually existing democratic processes in the US.

Non-Presenting Participants