Democratic Insecurities Research Group

Insecurity about democracy is sweeping the globe, causing populations to question the effectiveness and responsiveness of their representative systems. Among the factors driving this trend are the effects of globalization and automation on employment; the real or imagined effects of massive migration flows from Syria, northern Africa, Central America, Venezuela, Myanmar; and perceived loss of social status, general hopelessness, and disempowerment in the face of disappearing social mobility. Where leaders fail to respond to these issues, populations are rebelling by supporting democracy-eroding populist figures and/or dividing into severely polarized societies. The consequences are pernicious for democracy.

In response to these challenges, the Democratic Insecurities research group has the following goals:

1. To explore common interests and develop projects across disciplinary boundaries
2. To host scholars to share expertise and research in seminars and working sessions
3. To work with partners to enhance the existing GSU initiative to encourage student participation in the voting process,
4. To work with faculty and grad students on teaching strategies to incorporate civic education, discussions of contentious issues in a polarized era, and experiential civic engagement assignments into their curricula.

If you are interested in joining us, please contact Dr. Jennifer McCoy.

Find out upcoming events on CHRD’s calendar.

Holocaust and Genocide Studies Research Consortium

The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Research Consortium is an interdisciplinary research group at GSU formed in 2016. The purpose of the consortium is to showcase the work on the Holocaust and comparative genocide done by various faculty at GSU in multiple disciplines (history, political science, anthropology, global studies, law, world languages and cultures) and also bring leading scholars of the Holocaust and comparative genocide to campus. Our aim is that the increasing visibility of this research will lead to other collaborative efforts, both across campus, and across various universities. It is also our hope that these events will grow student interest in studying the Holocaust and comparative genocide. So far, the Consortium has organized: a documentary film screening, a major symposium with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and eight public talks: Evgeny Finkel (George Washington), Jeffrey Kopstein (UC Irvine), Anu Chakravarty (South Carolina), Claire Greenstein (GA Tech), Max Bergholz (Concordia), Sarah Wagner (George Washington), Mila Dragojevic (Suwanee), Kathy Powers (New Mexico).

Impact and outcomes

Events we have organized in the past have attracted audience from across the campus and also from the larger Atlanta community. They include led to an ongoing cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, convening of an international conference that will take place on January 23-25, 2019 at the University of California-Irvine (GSU is collaborating with UC Irvine and Penn State on this project) and an edited volume resulting from the conference, which will be submitted to Cambridge University Press, and an interdisciplinary conference, “Sites of Reckoning: Memorials, Museums, and the Fractured Truth(s) in the Aftermaths of Mass Violence,” March 5-7, 2020. Dr. Jelena Subotic’s research on this topic, Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism (Cornell University Press, 2019), received the Best Book Prize from the American Political Science Association’s European Politics and Society Section and the 2020 Joseph Rothschild Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies.

Find out upcoming events on CHRD’s calendar.

Contact person: Jelena Subotic, Professor, Political Science