Andrzej Duda Archives - Public Seminar

“The Symbolic Equivalent of a Pogrom” in Poland

The attack on historian Jan Grabowski broke the psychological barrier limiting public anti-Semitic actions

June 13, 2023 • by Irena Grudzińska-Gross

Since there are no longer any groupings of recognizable Jews in Poland, the assault on Jan Grabowski is the symbolic equivalent of a pogrom. The otherwise inexplicable destruction of property forms part of the pogrom repertoire. ...

“The Symbolic Equivalent of a Pogrom” in Poland

Democracy

Mini-Trumps in the Wilderness

Trump’s loss of the presidency in 2020 may spell disaster for his fellow populists in Eastern Europe

November 18, 2020 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States has seriously weakened authoritarian and populist governments around the world. For independent global powers like Russia, Brazil, and Turkey, Donald Trump’s departure need not amount to a complete tragedy. But for the current governments of Poland, Hungary, and Serbia -- and ...

Democracy

Poland’s Abortion Ban Protests Are a Harbinger of a Wider Social Movement

Channelling the grievances of women and of the LGBTQ community

November 10, 2020 • by Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer and Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz

The pro-choice protests that started on October 22, 2020 are the beginning of a wider social movement channelling the grievances of women and of the LGBTQ community, as well as other marginalized groups in Poland, write Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer and Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz. What’s more, the protests are not only taking place ...

Poland’s Abortion Ban Protests Are a Harbinger of a Wider Social Movement

Public Health

Understanding the Fear of Vaccines

How to talk about public health in the age of COVID

July 21, 2020 • by Tarun Jose Kattumana

The pandemic has already changed some minds. Many who were previously opposed to vaccinations have softened their stance. However, misinformation from anti-vax groups continues to be far-reaching and influential. Why are anti-vax claims influential despite the immediate threat of the pandemic? What, if anything, can be done to lower the ...

Europe & Central Asia

Poland Slouches On

After a noxious and underhanded campaign, Poland’s incumbent president, representing the country’s illiberal ruling party, has clinched a narrow re-election victory. That gives the government three more years to dismantle the country’s democracy.

July 17, 2020 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

WARSAW -- In the second round of Poland’s presidential election, incumbent Andrzej Duda narrowly defeated Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. Though he carried just six provinces in eastern Poland, compared to Trzaskowski’s ten, and lost in medium and large cities, Duda’s support in villages and small towns was just enough to push him over the ...

Feature

Poland’s Growing Authoritarianism

On Facing the Implications of Recent Events

December 22, 2017 • by Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer

In order to restore real justice, unlike the EU-enforced one, there are no holds barred; and just because something is written in law doesn’t mean it’s just. It doesn’t even matter that some of these laws were created during the previous 2005-2007 PiS-led government or that they were signed by ...

Education

Our Dark Times

Setting the Intellectual and Political Context for the Investigation of Media, The New Authoritarianism and Its Alternatives

July 7, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

This seminar has a long history, predating the Democracy and Diversity Institute, and born as an oppositionist activity in the good old bad days of previously existing socialism. Adam Michnik first imagined it, after he received an honorary doctorate from The New School in a clandestine award ceremony in 1984 in ...