2025 Democracy & Diversity Graduate Summer Institute
at the The New School for Social Research
Reclaiming Democratic Futures
WROCŁAW, POLAND
July 4-19, 2025
The Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) of the New School for Social Research is very pleased to announce the 31st Democracy & Diversity Graduate Summer Institute taking place this year July 4-19, 2025, in Wroclaw, Poland.
Widely admired as an intimate international forum for lively but rigorous debate on critical issues of democratic life, the Democracy & Diversity Institute brings an interdisciplinary, international comparative, and highly interactive approach to the social, political, and cultural challenges facing today’s world.
Conceived over 30 years ago after the fall of the Berlin Wall as a site for “civic-minded scholarship,” the Institute is known for its rigorous and demanding academic program that offers an academically and personally transformative experience and ongoing membership in an expanding international collaborative community.
The forward-looking theme of this year’s Institute, Reclaiming Democratic Futures, is organized around four graduate seminars, augmented by evening conversations, micro-events, and excursions. The entire program of the Institute will be announced in February 2025, but here are the titles of the four core seminars: Liberal Crises: History, Theory, Lessons (Andreas Kalyvas, Associate Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research); Imagining Other Futures: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Democratic Projects (Shireen Hassim, Canada150 Research Chair in Gender and African Politics, Carleton University, Ottawa, and the 2025 Hans Speier Visiting professor at The New School for Social Research); Democracy’s Endgame? (Elzbieta Matynia, Professor of Sociology and Liberal Studies, The New School for Social Research); America is Hard to Find: Crisis, Resistance, and Renewal (Jeremy Varon, Professor of History, The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College).
Located between Berlin, Prague, and Warsaw, and saturated with the history and memory of these three distinct cultures, Wrocław (formerly the German city of Breslau), is a beautiful and booming town that uniquely conveys both the challenges and the promise of a united Europe. Drawing on Wrocław’s culture of the borderland, TCDS’s network of distinguished collaborators and alumni, and The New School’s reputation stemming from our long-term engagement in the region, the Democracy & Diversity Institute offers a program of critical inquiry on some of the most pressing problems of our time.
Graduate students — and some selected advanced undergraduate students — from any university are eligible to apply and can choose to enroll in 2 of the 4 courses offered. New School students will earn 3 credits per course; non-New School participants will receive completion certificates.
NB: These are regular New School 3-credit graduate courses (regular tuition is applicable for New School students), taught by New School faculty and invited faculty, in Wroclaw, Poland. All students will have to travel to Poland and stay at the Institute hotel for the entire duration of the Institute. There is a program fee (for lodging, meals, and activities) charged for this program (travel to Poland is the student’s responsibility and is not included in the program fee).
Applications and more program details will be available at the beginning of the Spring 2025 semester. The deadline for Applications will be in March 2025.
Courses Offered:
Imagining Other Futures: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Democratic Projects
Shireen Hassim, Canada150 Research Chair in Gender and African Politics, Carleton University, Ottawa, and the 2025 Hans Speier Visiting professor at The New School for Social Research
Liberal Crises: History, Theory, Lessons
Andreas Kalyvas, Associate Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research
Democracy’s Endgame?
Elzbieta Matynia, Professor of Sociology and Liberal Studies, The New School for Social Research
America is Hard to Find: Crisis, Resistance, and Renewal
Jeremy Varon, Professor of History, The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College
Co-organized with the DSW University of Lower Silesia in Wrocław, Poland.
