The Clough Center is dedicating its 2026-2027 year of programming to the theme of "Democracy at Scale."
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Spring 2026 Symposium on Democratic Resilience
On March 19-20, the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College hosrted the annual Spring Symposium, the major event of our program year. Focused on this year’s theme, Democratic Resilience, the Symposium featured Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu of MIT, Ross Douthat of The New York Times, Harvard's Steven Levitsky, and former ACLU President Nadine Strossen – among many others.
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Clough Center Delegation to Bogotá, Colombia
In the Spring of 2026, a Clough Center delegation of Boston College faculty and doctoral students spent a week in Colombia, where they met with local leaders and scholars.
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we the people with jill lepore
On December 3, 2025, the Clough Center welcomed historian Jill Lepore to discuss her latest book, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution (2025). During the event, Lepore encouraged audiences to rethink the Constitution as a living, breathing document—one shaped and reshaped over time through amendment.
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The quest for democracy in north africa
The Clough Center hosted Youssef Chahed, Republic of Tunisia's youngest-ever appointed head of government and Mohammed Hashas, scholar of Islamic studies.
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Fall Colloquium: Democratic Resilience
The Clough Center hosted the Fall Colloquium on democratic resilience on October 9, the year-long theme for the 2025–26 academic year. The event featured contributions from Sheri Berman of Barnard College and Robert C. Bartlett, Gerald M. Easter, and Ingu Hwang of Boston College.
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Spring Symposium on Envisioning Democratic Futures
On March 21-22, the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College hosted our Spring Symposium, the major event of our program year. Focused on this year’s theme, Envisioning Democratic Futures, and featuring commentator Brett McGurk, the Symposium’s panels will grapple with an array of diverse and timely topics.
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Untangling Germany's Election Results
The results of the contest, which took place on February 23, promise to be consequential for Germany, for the European Union, and for a region in which economic regulation, immigration, and the war in Ukraine continue to rock political life. To help us understand the outcome of the vote, the Clough Center hosted Sonja Kreibich, Consul General of Germany to the New England States, as well as three expert scholars, on February 27.
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Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the Modern State
From the aftermath of communism to the place of religion in politics, Anna Grzymała-Busse has spent her career engaging some of the most vexing questions of contemporary political life. In her latest work, Sacred Foundations (Princeton, 2023), Prof. Grzymała-Busse offers a striking new interpretation of the origins of the modern state. How did the medieval Catholic church birth the modern secular state, and how does this surprising history continue to shape our political life today? To share her insights into the paradoxical past and uncertain future of contemporary democratic states, the Clough Center is delighted to welcome Anna Grzymała-Busse as a 2024-25 Clough Distinguished Lecturer.
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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.
