The Clough Center is dedicating its 2024-2025 year of programming to the theme of "Envisioning Democratic Futures."
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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,聽聽(Chicago, 2024). How did the veneration of the Constitution become an American habit鈥攁nd, Rana argues, an ingrained vice鈥揹uring the 20th Century? And how has it continued to constrain our politics ever since?聽
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On Democratic Participation: A Celebration of Kay Schlozman
Kay Lehman Schlozman聽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鈥檚 2004 Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American politics.聽
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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?聽聽聽
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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.聽
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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聽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.聽
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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.聽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.聽This event is part of the Clough Center's year-long exploration of聽鈥淎ttachment to Place in a World of Nations鈥�.
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鈥淒arwin鈥檚 Nightmare鈥�
Written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper, the Oscar-nominated documentary聽Darwin鈥檚 Nightmare聽(2004) investigates the social and ecological impact of the global fishing industry in Tanzania鈥檚 Lake Victoria.聽As a contribution to our ongoing exploration of 鈥淎ttachment to Place in a World of Nations,鈥� the Clough Center is pleased to host a viewing of聽Darwin鈥檚 Nightmare,聽followed by a discussion of the film with Director Hubert Sauper.聽
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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.聽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.聽Prof. Appadurai鈥檚 lecture is entitled 鈥淢aking the National Geographic: The Infrastructure of an Intimate Abstraction.鈥澛�
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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鈥檚 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.聽Even today, many people across the globe continue to define their identities in relation to other forms of 鈥渁ttachment to place.鈥�
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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?聽
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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鈥搘hether by fact-checking political advertisements, or scoring political speeches with Pinocchios鈥搃s only the most obvious of journalists鈥� contributions. When institutional norms fail, the media serve as an additional set of guardrails, offering critique while safeguarding democratic institutions.聽
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鈥淭he Return of the Native鈥�
As the second Clough Distinguished Lecturer in our relaunched series, Prof. Tarrow will draw on his extensive comparative research into European democratic regimes to speak to the challenges polarization poses to American democracy today. He will also make the case that the postwar experience of European countries can afford valuable insights into the nature of these challenges, and how they might be addressed. Prof. Tarrow鈥檚 respondent will be聽Marshall Ganz, the Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society at the Kennedy School of Government, and one of the foremost scholars and practitioners of community organizing.
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"Degenerations of Democracy鈥�
As the first speaker in the Clough Center鈥檚 relaunched 鈥淒istinguished Lecture鈥� series, Prof. Calhoun will address the issues explored in his most recent book,聽Degenerations of Democracy, co-authored with Charles Taylor and Dilip Gaonkar. Challenging commonplace narratives, this work interrogates the underlying causes of democratic decline, and examines the most promising strategies for revitalizing democracy across the globe.聽Calhoun鈥檚 respondent is聽Elizabeth McKenna, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and an expert in social movements, political parties, and grassroots democratic politics.
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Coping With Defeat? A Roundtable Discussion聽
How do religions that have grown accustomed to political rule cope with the loss of their political authority in modernity? And how might they learn to coexist, peacefully, with the modern state? In his latest book,聽Coping with Defeat, Clough Center Director Jonathan Laurence sheds new light on these questions by offering a comparative analysis of two religions not often treated together: Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam.聽
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What the Constitution Means to Us
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?