The Clough Center is dedicating its 2024-2025 year of programming to the theme of "Envisioning Democratic Futures."
Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the Modern State
with Anna Grzymala-Busse
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“What Comes Next? Assessing a Year of Elections”
2024 has been a momentous year for democracy, in the US and around the world. Many of the countries voting this year–Mexico, India, South Africa, France, Iran, the UK and the US, to name but a few–face major challenges and stand at a crossroads of their historical trajectories. In some, the very nature of the democratic system -- from political norms to institutional checks and balances -- is at stake. To reflect on this pivotal year, and consider what it means for the future of democracy worldwide, the Clough Center is pleased to present “What Comes Next? Assessing a Year of Elections.
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Religion and Reconciliation: Forging Peace after War
The screenings of two short documentaries by Reset Dialogues on Civilization on the role of religions in reconciliation and peacebuilding: 1. Religion and Reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina & the Balkans and 2. The Russia-Ukraine Conflict & the Role of the Orthodox Church. Directed by Filippo Macelloni, these timely 25-minute films analyze the role of religion in peace-making efforts in the context of the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine-Russia. Historical background and expert interviews are interwoven in an informative and engaging viewing experience.
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Fall Colloquium: Envisioning Democratic Futures
The Clough Center has dedicated the 2024-25 academic year to the theme “Envisioning Democratic Futures.” We launchdc our year-long exploration of that theme with our Fall Colloquium on October 10th, which features an exceptional set of speakers, including the eminent journalist Susan Glasser of The New Yorker magazine. The Clough Center’s major event of the fall was a worthwhile kickoff to our annual theme.
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The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them
The Clough Center was delighted to welcome Professor Rana, one of our 2024-25 Faculty Affiliates, as our first Clough Distinguished Lecturer of the year. In his lecture, which doubles as a book launch, Professor Rana will address the core themes of his just published work, The Constitutional Bind (Chicago, 2024). How did the veneration of the Constitution become an American habit—and, Rana argues, an ingrained vice–during the 20th Century? And how has it continued to constrain our politics ever since?
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On Democratic Participation: A Celebration of Kay Schlozman
Kay Lehman Schlozman serves as J. Joseph Moakley Endowed Professor of Political Science. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. The winner of the American Political Science Association’s 2004 Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American politics.
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What the Constitution Means to Us 2024
Since the founding era of the United States, the American Constitution has been central to our public life. It has inspired hope, and it has provoked despair. It has remained in place, as few other national constitutions have. Yet it has also repeatedly been updated and amended, and some today think it needs to change again. During an election season when its basic meaning seems more contested than ever, how should we look at the Constitution today?
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Clough Reception
On August 29, 2024, The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy hosted a reception for the research, public service, and doctoral fellows, along with the Clough correspondents.
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Spring Symposium on Attachment to Place
At this gathering, a cross-disciplinary group of leading scholars from around the world from our Boston College community joined experts for a series of dialogues on place, nationality, and global politics. Sessions focused on topics related to the importance of place, including the Environment, Nations and Borders, Religion, Digital Space, Urban Planning, Land, and Commemoration.
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The South of Our Imagination
A Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Karen Cox has risen to prominence as one of the most authoritative commentators on the American South today. To shed more light on a region and the places that continue to define our nation today, the Clough Center enthusiastically welcomes Prof. Karen Cox as a Distinguished Lecturer for the 2023-24 academic year. This event is part of the Clough Center's year-long exploration of “Attachment to Place in a World of Nations”.
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“Darwin’s Nightmare”
Written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper, the Oscar-nominated documentary Darwin’s Nightmare (2004) investigates the social and ecological impact of the global fishing industry in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria. As a contribution to our ongoing exploration of “Attachment to Place in a World of Nations,” the Clough Center is pleased to host a viewing of Darwin’s Nightmare, followed by a discussion of the film with Director Hubert Sauper.
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Making the National Geographic
The Clough Center is delighted to welcome Prof. Appadurai as a Clough Distinguished Lecturer of the 2023-24 academic year. Serving as his respondent is Zine Magubane, Professor of Sociology at Boston College, whose work critically examines the legacies of slavery and colonialism to develop new theoretical tools for a truly global sociology. Prof. Appadurai’s lecture is entitled “Making the National Geographic: The Infrastructure of an Intimate Abstraction.”
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Attachment to Place in a World of Nations
Over the last two centuries, the nation-state has risen to become the dominant territorial unit of governance, law, economy, and culture. So it remains even in today’s globalized order. Yet for much of world history, other modes of structuring political space prevailed, from great dynastic and religious empires to independent cities, tribal confederations, and local communities. Even today, many people across the globe continue to define their identities in relation to other forms of “attachment to place.”
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What the Constitution Means to Us 2023
Since the founding era of the United States, the American Constitution has been central to our public life. It has inspired hope, and it has provoked despair. It has remained in place, as few other national constitutions have. Yet it has also repeatedly been changed, and some today think it needs to change again. At a moment when its basic meaning seems more contested than ever, how should we look at the Constitution today?
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Renewing Journalism, Restoring Democracy
By keeping the public informed and holding the powerful to account, journalism plays a vital role in the life of democratic societies. Maintaining an objective public record–whether by fact-checking political advertisements, or scoring political speeches with Pinocchios–is only the most obvious of journalists’ contributions. When institutional norms fail, the media serve as an additional set of guardrails, offering critique while safeguarding democratic institutions.
