Functioning institutions are crucial to upholding liberal democracy, and only increasingly so at moments like this when Europe is threatened with war and internal divisions stemming from authoritarian and illiberal politics and their massive disinformation campaigns. Europe’s Futures Fellows Katy Hayward and Ieva Česnulaitytė will be hosted by Ivan Vejvoda for an in-depth conversation on the role that the two fundamentally democratic institutions, Universities and citizen assemblies, (should) have in equipping citizens and policymakers with capacities necessary for upholding liberal democracies.

Europe’s Futures is IWM’s partnership initiative with ERSTE Foundation. In a rapidly changing global environment it aims to understand and address the challenges confronting Europe and the European Union. Core are the issues of democracy, the rule of law, migration dynamics and further enlargement of the EU as well as other internal and external issues. The sixth cohort of Europe’s Futures Fellows in the academic 2023/24 is comprised of eight prominent experts who will present their research in presentations and public events throughout the month of September.

Katy Hayward PhD MRIA FAcSS is Professor of Political Sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she is also co-Director of the Centre for International Borders Research. She is a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and an Eisenhower Fellow. Katy has written numerous books, articles and policy reports, as well as comment pieces and explainers. She has presented to media, policy, civic and academic audiences worldwide as an expert on the impact of European integration and Brexit on peace, democratic processes, governance and cross-border cooperation in Ireland and the UK.

Ieva Česnulaitytė is the Founding Head of Research and Learning at DemocracyNext, an international non-profit, non-partisan research and action institute with a mission to build new democratic institutions for the next democratic paradigm of citizen participation and deliberation. Previously she was a Policy Analyst at the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) working on innovative citizen participation, co-authoring the OECD’s flagship report Catching the Deliberative Wave and Citizen Participation Guidelines, authoring the OECD’s Evaluation Guidelines for Representative Deliberative Processes, and editing a series on New Democratic Institutions for Participo. She also worked in Lithuania’s Prime Minister’s office, leading Lithuania’s participation in the Open Government Partnership Initiative.

Ivan Vejvoda, IWM Permanent Fellow and head of Europe’s Futures program, will host and moderate the event.  

Event registration: Europe’s Futures Colloquium with Katy Hayward and Ieva Česnulaitytė | IWM

Cover picture: Ukrainian and EU Flags, Dusan_Cvetanovic from Pixabay