DISRUPTION, CRISIS, OPPORTUNITY: WHITHER DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE?

This online colloquium on took place online via MS Teams. It brought together over 60 researchers from all continents, in 24 panels, including three roundtables and five book panels. Speakers included many PhD candidates and early career researchers, but also very well-known professors. The event was hosted by the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast, and Drs Timofey Agarin (RC14) and Soeren Keil (RC28) were in charge of the programme.

We were pleased that the event took place, despite the challenges related to the current corona-virus crisis as well as time constraints for many researchers at the end of the year. We nevertheless had many interesting panels, were able to present and discuss new research in the field, and had two major roundtables to support specifically younger academics with high-quality publications and access to research funding. In addition, it is worth noting that the keynote session, which included a conversation with Professor Eva Maria Belser from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) – a member of the Swiss Government’s Task Force to deal with the corona-virus, and Professor Joseph Marko, University of Graz (Austria) and Head of the Minority Rights Institute at Eurac in Bolzano (Italy) was well attended and received. Moderated by Dr Timofey Agarin, the keynote session discussed the impact of the current corona-virus crisis on the state, democracy, federalism, minorities, the European Union and wider global power shifts.

The programme included panels as diverse as “Federalism and Covid-19” and “Peacebuilding and Institutional Design in Post-Conflict Societies”. Many panels focused on the impact of Covid-19 on democracy, federalism and multilevel governance, minority rights, and policy making in different states and settings.

Please follow the links below to access the recording of these sessions.

Keynote session

Accessing Research Funding roundtable

Getting Published roundtable