Center
Recognizing that democracy is not inevitable and that its future is far from certain, the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) is dedicated to an interdisciplinary examination of democratic theory and practice, with the principle of open, rational public debate by citizens at its core. TCDS keeps an eye on the vibrancy of the public square as an indispensable incubator and maintainer of democracy and as a site that is vulnerable to erosion by the politics of distrust, nativism, resentment, and exclusion.
Inspired by the peaceful dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and building upon earlier semi-clandestine collaboration with democratically minded intellectuals in that part of the world, TCDS’s transregional and cross-departmental research and study programs bring together civic-minded students, junior and senior scholars, and civil society actors from various regional contexts. TCDS activities—region-based institutes, workshops, conferences, talks, and fellowships—are designed to strengthen individuals and organizations concerned with the promise and sustainability of democracy. Its flagship project is the annual Democracy & Diversity Graduate Summer Institute, held in Poland beginning in 1992 and South Africa from 1999 to 2015, aimed at a rigorous quest for a more textured understanding of the precariousness of democracy as it arises almost everywhere. There are more than 1,700 TCDS program alumni from The New School in more than 50 countries around the world.
To learn more, visit blogs.newschool.edu/tcds.