After a competitive selection process, the upcoming Summer School on Democratic Backsliding and Political Conflict will host 29 scholars from 24 nations to examine democratic erosion - and its resistance - across regions, through diverse disciplinary and methodological lenses.
The Summer School is organised by the European Governance and Politics Programme (EGPP) at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the EUI, in collaboration with the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore. It will provide a forum for young researchers to critically engage with key themes such as social movements and collective actors, media and democratic backsliding, comparative perspectives on Eastern Europe, political elites and state institutions, and the influence of EU institutions on democratic resilience. The initiative is funded by the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR) through the MERITA, the network for talent project, and by the EUI Widening Europe Programme.
The programme will feature three days of lectures by prominent scholars in the field of political science, political sociology, and communication studies. In addition to theoretical and methodological sessions pertinent to their areas of interest, students will also receive feedback from experts in the field about their own research projects. Further information on the Summer School’s schedule and speakers can be found here.
As part of its mission to build a bridge between the EUI and national higher education institutions in targeted Widening countries, the EUI Widening Programme provided 11 scholarships to applicants from Widening countries. For more information on other opportunities provided by the Widening Programme, click here.