Perspectives on US Democracy in Challenging Times

This panel puts the United States' democratic trajectory in conversation with governance lessons from Latin America and Africa. Former President of the International and American Political Science Associations - Dianne Pinderhughes (ND) - will offer a keynote address with responses and reflections from Ezequiel Gonzalez Ocantos (Oxford), Luis Schenoni (UCL), Bernard Forjwuor (Notre Dame), and Lamin Keita (Notre Dame). Moderated by Jaimie Bleck (Lehigh University.).

Dianne Pinderhughes is the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science; she holds a concurrent faculty appointment in American Studies, is a Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg Institute, and is a Research Faculty member in Gender Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her research addresses inequality with a focus on racial, ethnic, and gender politics and public policy in the Americas, explores the creation of American civil society institutions in the twentieth century, and analyzes their influence on the formation of voting rights policy. Her publications include Uneven Roads: An Introduction to US Racial and Ethnic Politics (co-author; 2014, 2018, 2024); Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory (1987); Race, Gender, and the Changing Face of Political Leadership in 21st Century America (co-author; 2016). She was a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program, and a member (2005-2011; 2013-2022) of and Vice Chair (2009-2011) of the Board of Governors of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. She was the President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (1988-89), and President of the American Political Science Association (2007-2008). Pinderhughes was President of the International Political Science Association (2021-2023). Pinderhughes was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2003-04).

Jaimie Bleck is a professor of International Relations at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. Prior to this, she served as an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Bleck’s research interests include citizenship, democratization, and civil society in Africa, with a focus on Mali. She is the author of two books: Education and Empowered Citizenship (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015) and Electoral Politics in Africa Since 1990: Continuity and Change with Nicolas van de Walle (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Her articles have been published or are forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, Democratization, Comparative Political Studies, African Affairs, World Development, and the Journal of Modern African Studies. Her research has been funded by the US Agency for International Development, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She holds a PhD in government from Cornell University.

Ezequiel González Ocantos is a professor of comparative and judicial politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University. His research agenda in the field of comparative judicial politics focuses on determinants of judicial and prosecutorial behavior in high-stakes cases of macro-criminality, including human rights violations and grand corruption. His published works include Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2016), The Politics of Transitional Justice in Latin America: Power, Norms and Capability Building (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Prosecutors, Voters, and the Criminalisation of Corruption in Latin America (with Paula Muñoz, Nara Pavao & Viviana Baraybar; Cambridge University Press, 2023), and The Limits of Judicialization: From Progress to Backlash in Latin America (co-edited w/ Sandra Botero & Daniel Brinks; Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Luis Schenoni is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at University College London and the Director of UCL’s Security Studies Program. He is also an Affiliated Professor at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT), Argentina. His research explores the determinants of international conflict and its effects on state and nation-building, with a particular focus on Latin America. His book, Bringing War Back In: Victory, Defeat, and the State in Nineteenth Century Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2024), provides a fresh theory connecting war and state formation that incorporates the contingency of warfare and the effects of war outcomes in the long run. The book demonstrates that international wars in nineteenth-century Latin America triggered state-building, that the outcomes of those wars affected the legitimacy and continuity of such efforts, and that the relative capacity of states in this region today continues to reflect those distant processes. His articles have appeared in outlets including the American Journal of Political Science, International Security, Democratization, International Studies Quarterly, and Security Studies.

Bernard Forjwuor is an assistant professor of Africana Studies and Political Science (Concurrent) at the University of Notre Dame. He is also a faculty fellow with the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights. He is a black political theorist and philosopher with research interests in black political thought/philosophy, critical theory, critical theories of race and colonialism, and decolonial theories. His book, Critique of Political Decolonization (Oxford University Press, 2023), is an antinormative and critical refutation of the decolonial accomplishment of political independence or self-determination in Ghana. It challenges what, in normative scholarship, has become a persistent conflation of two different concepts: political decolonization and political independence. His current book project, Reimagining Democracy, asks why and how the genealogies of colonial histories/policies/practices inform, hasten, and make possible the decomposition of democracies in Africa/Ghana.

Lamin Keita is a postdoctoral research associate at the Keough School's Kellogg Institute for International Studies. His research examines community violence and democratization in West Africa, investigating why some communities and states use violence while others in similar conditions adopt nonviolent resistance. Based on his regional specialization in Africa and beyond, Keita’s current book project develops both empirical and theoretical frameworks for analyzing the relationships between state and societal actors in identifying and sharing information for counterinsurgency purposes. His findings also provide valuable insights for policymakers who support indigenous approaches to managing conflict.

Sponsored by ND London, the African Governance Innovations Lab, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Franco Institute, and the Democracy Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.