Johns Hopkins University is Democracy onAir’s most recent Champion of Democracy in the US and globally.  JHU has as many quality educational, research, and service programs helping to support local, state, and federal democracies as any university in the world. These programs will be further enhanced by the new JHU School of Government and Policy that will bring together programs throughout the university to pursue evidence-based solutions to society’s greatest challenges.

Some specifically democracy-enhancing programs include:

• The NSF Agora Institute in the Homewood campus in Baltimore “strengthening global democracy through powerful civic engagement and informed, inclusive dialogue.”
• Special events like the annual Democracy Day offering students an introduction to the democratic process and the ways they can engage with it and the Democracy and Freedom Festival a series of events aimed at educating citizens about the importance of democracy and its essential role in advancing freedom, justice, and equality for all.

For more information, see the JHU slide show and the experimental Agora Custom Hub.

John Hopkins University President Ron Daniels has made understanding and improving democracy one of his primary areas of expertise and communication.

Author of the internationally recognized book What Universities Owe Democracy, Daniels is a leading voice in arguing for the indispensable role that universities play in sustaining democratic societies at a critical moment in history when democracies around the globe are under threat. Throughout his presidency, Johns Hopkins has made significant efforts to promote democratic values and civic education on campus. This includes the introduction of Democracy Day into first-year orientation; the launch of a university Debate Initiative to model reasoned debate on campus; and deepened support for the voter outreach initiative Hopkins Votes.

Daniels has led the creation of ambitious, multidisciplinary initiatives such as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute, which aims to strengthen civic engagement and encourage robust dialogue among all citizens.

Strengthening global democracy through powerful civic engagement and informed, inclusive dialogue

The SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University was founded in 2017 with a $150 million gift from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

We are a multi-disciplinary academic and public forum dedicated to strengthening global democracy by improving and expanding civic engagement and inclusive dialogue, and by supporting inquiry that leads to real-world change.

By building integrated partnerships with scholars, practitioners, students, and the public, we use research to identify and sharpen strategic choices that members of the public and civic and political stakeholders around the world can make to realize the promise of democracy.

Link to the SNF Agora Institute hub

Hahrie Han is the Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

Research Interests: Civic and political participation, collective action, organizing, and social change, focusing particularly on the role of civic associations

Education: PhD, Stanford University

Americans are losing the ability to talk to each other, especially when they disagree. This is happening on university campuses, too, where experts say students increasingly are drawn to professors, speakers, and fellow students who have similar backgrounds and views, and are failing to learn how to engage productively with opposing voices.

To that end, the SNF Agora Institute’s university debate initiative aims to model the habits and virtues of reasoned debate across different perspectives, and the possibilities for finding common ground amid disagreement.

The debate initiative will host a pair of marquee moderated debates each year that bring to the university major speakers, such as public intellectuals, former government officials, and media personalities. The program will also fund and support a number of additional debates organized by students each semester, to enable healthy debate to be a recurring feature of campus life.

At Johns Hopkins University’s annual Democracy Day, new students learn about the importance of—and threats to—modern democracies

For most Johns Hopkins undergraduates, the college experience is filled with a long list of firsts—including the first election in which they are eligible to vote. With that in mind, JHU held its third annual Democracy Day on Saturday, offering students an introduction to the democratic process and the ways they can engage with it.

Much of this year’s [2023] programming focused on the problems facing democracy, a theme JHU President Ron Daniels echoed in his opening remarks.

”Liberal democracy … is not a self-executing endeavor,” he said. “We have seen time and time again throughout history that it can be derailed through apathy and indifference on the one hand, and nativism and fear on the other. For democracy to survive and to thrive, it must always be re-examined, re-energized, and renewed by lawyers, historians, philosophers, elected officials, and organizers

The annual Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festivals—”a free event brings together scholars and practitioners from across the country to join with the Johns Hopkins and Baltimore communities as we grapple with some of the most urgent challenges facing democracy, model civic engagement across divides, and celebrate democratic resilience and opportunity”.

Celebrating the life and legacy of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, The Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festival is a series of events aimed at educating citizens about the importance of democracy and its essential role in advancing freedom, justice, and equality for all. Hosted by the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins.

Karina Lipsman has expertise in international diplomacy, geopolitical strategy, conflict resolution, cyber and space domains, defense operations, and implementation of U.S. global defense systems spans almost two decades.

She is currently the head of government relations at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Most recently, Karina served as the 2022 United States Congressional nominee for Virginia’s 8th District. In this capacity, she was the only Ukrainian-born refugee immigrant nominated to run for Congress in the country, broke multiple milestones by winning a historic percentage in a five-way highly contested primary and outperforming 30 years of fundraising records.