This symposium will convene leading scholars and political practitioners to discuss the current state of U.S. democracy, contemporary research on American politics, and the roles that academics and practitioners can play in resisting authoritarianism, defending research, and strengthening democratic institutions.

Speakers will include:

• Rohit Chopra - Former Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) and former Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

• Marshall Ganz - Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society, Kennedy School of Government

• Hahrie Han - Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute and Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

• James Jones- Inaugural Director of the Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology, Rutgers University-Newark

• Jamila Michener - Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, Inaugural Director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures, and Senior Associate Dean for Public Engagement at the Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University

• Alondra Nelson - Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)

• Beth Pearson - Chief of Staff, Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren

• Lindsay Owens - Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative, former senior advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren

• Dorian Warren - Co-President of Community Change and Co-Founder of the Economic Security Project

• Christine M. Slaughter - Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boston University

• Daniel Laurison - Associate Professor of Sociology, Director Healthy, Equitable, and Responsive Research Democracy (HEARD) Initiative, Swarthmore College

• Wendy Y. Li - SNF Agora Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Johns Hopkins University