March 8-9, 2024
Mid-Missouri Undergraduate Conference on Democracy Studies:
Democracy And
Conference Sponsored by the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy
Call for Papers
Deadline: December 13, 2023
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Across the globe, democracies are under attack. A bold public sentiment is fomenting that rejects pluralism, embraces and demands absolute authority, and views cruelty as a virtue.
As the next generation of scholars and citizens, we have both an obligation to analyze this rise of authoritarianism and its effects, as well as a unique position from which to approach this important task. But how does one study something so pervasive—not to mention fluid—as democracy and threats to it? Understanding this global rejection of democracy, and democracy itself, necessitates looking at more than just political science—it requires studying democracy in the interspace. Both the political reality of democratic systems and the understood cultural idea of democracy have a central presence in departments throughout the academy: history, economics, literature, philosophy, environmental sustainability, and sociology, to name but a few. Not only do scholars in all these fields have important things to say about democracy and its preservation, but this area of study can only be called complete when representatives from a spectrum of disciplines, falsely presumed disparate, are invited to sit at the table together.
With an emphasis on “democracy and…”, this conference seeks to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion on the interplay between the idea and practice of constitutional democracy, along with the many other subjects that such a discussion constellates. Gathering papers that fit into potential categories such as “Democracy and Journalism,” “Democracy and Freedom,” and “Democracy and Frontiers,” it seeks to deepen our understanding of democracy’s cultural, historical, and physical context. We welcome papers produced as a class project or independently, so long as the research therein plays into this scholarly ambition to foster cross-discipline conversation.
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The “Mid-Missouri Undergraduate Conference on Democracy Studies” conference is sponsored by the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy’s Undergraduate Society and will be held in Columbia, MO, on March 8-9, 2024. Presenters from out-of-town will be eligible to apply to have their travel and Friday lodging expenses covered by the Kinder Institute. To apply to present, send a 250 word abstract explaining the scope of your proposed paper along with a short-form c.v. in a single document to conference co-conveners Tommy Jackson, jtjgyd@umsystem.edu, and Autumn Slingerland, avsyqq@missouri.edu, by December 13, 2023. Please title both the email subject line and the application document “Your Last Name-Kinder Conference Submission.” For further information, or to discuss ideas, contact the co-conveners at the email addresses provided above.
