Summer Institute on Hiatus
Today, on July 2nd, we were to launch our 29th summer Democracy & Diversity Institute in Wroclaw, and the New School graduate students were to meet their peers, young civic-minded scholars and activists from various parts of the world, at our traditional opening gathering. Needless to say, while designing the institute program, whose theme was to have been “Reimagining our Future,” we did not anticipate the dramatic confluence of developments that will no doubt dramatically reshape the world we live in. Though we were forced to postpone the Institute this July, the work of reimagining and remaking the world has fast become all the more urgent and profound. We are fully committed to convening in Wrocław in July 2021, and plan to announce it in November.
In the meantime, there is work to be done, some of which has already began. Please see the recent series of columns — “Letters from the Field: PanDemos” — published by fellows, alumni and collaborators of TCDS. As we promised our impressive group of alumni and those who had committed to joining us this summer, we will be inviting you shortly to take part in our July 14th webinar panel, Democracy in a Time of Plague: Challenges and Opportunities in the Struggles Against Authoritarianism, Covid-19 and Racism.
With warmest greetings to all friends, and in solidarity: as Dwight McBride, the new president of the New School, says: Onward and Forward!
Elzbieta Matynia
