Democracy Engagements Cohort
Is democracy important now? And how is democracy expressed? Through voting, debate, protest, or public messaging? How do we know if democracy is working or measure its benefits in comparison to other systems?
Call
The College Fellows and Engagements Program are seeking 35 students to form an Engagements Cohort interested in fulfilling their four engagements requirements through a holistic study of democracy, both as a representative political system and a set of citizenly actions, over the course of the 2024-2025 academic year.
Sixty-four countries are having democratic elections in 2024, including the United States. These elections occur in the midst of escalating global concerns about rising absolutism and totalitarianism, as well as multiple overlapping global crises. As a cohort, students will examine and begin to understand differences between democratic systems, the ways that democracies express themselves, how governments interact with a broad and diverse body politic, and intellectual genealogies examining historical and contemporary democracies.
In addition to pursuing these intellectual inquiries, students will receive training in voter registration and implement a voter registration campaign in which they register their peers across engagement classes. Given that UVA’s Board of Visitors is appointed by the Virginia governor, voting is one mechanism, among others, that allows students to have a say in UVA’s operations.
Finally, students in this Engagements Cohort will take a field trip to Washington, D.C., to ask questions about democracy in the United States’ democratic center.
Student members of the Democracy Engagements Cohort will:
- Take a series of 4 Engagement classes together over the course of the year;
- Organize and implement a voter registration campaign;
- Take a field trip to Washington, D.C.
How to Apply
If you wish to participate in the Democracy Engagements Cohort, simply indicate so in the Pre-enrollment Form in your New Student Portal.