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This course is archived
Course date
June 27–July 2, 2022
Application deadline
The application process for this course is closed.
ECTS Credits
1.0
Course delivery
In-person
SUN Packages
Fee-Paying
Tuition Waiver
Partial Scholarship
Full Scholarship

During the first decades of the twenty-first century, the threat to democratic societies the world over has increasingly come from within. In general, this threat from within is not one of military coups or the interference of foreign governments, but of fraught popular elections and rising populist tides. Amid an array of national and cultural differences shaped by history and contemporary conditions, there is no one true and tested path to securing democratic societies against this threat. Yet this need not mean abandoning democracy. It means diagnosing democracy’s current failures, understanding its partial achievements, and renewing its many and varied cultures. There is an urgent need for both sustained dialogue among proponents of diverse interpretive positions and their recommendations, for policy as well as mobilization.

The “Dismantling Democracy from Within" course advances the twin mission of understanding the critical challenges democracy is facing and developing the democratic agendas that will meet these challenges under variable cultural and socio-economic conditions. Such a mission can only be secured by facilitating a robust dialogue among students, activists, and scholars assembled from all over the world. Students will leave the Summer School with a deeper knowledge of the specific challenges facing democracy in different contexts as well as a global understanding of how they are connected.

Sessions at the Summer School are led by its distinguished faculty and will generally take the form of lecture presentations, seminar discussions, and student-centered workshops. Throughout the week, students will have the opportunity to discuss their research with faculty during office hours sessions. 

Target Group
The Summer School invites applications from humanities and social science graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and junior faculty who have received their Ph.D. within the last 5 years. Applications from advanced undergraduate students will also be considered. As a prerequisite for the course, participants need to be pursuing research related to the Summer School’s core themes and questions.

The Summer School admits and fully funds a minimum of twenty students and reserves one-third of available spaces for applicants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We envision that the Summer School may be of interest to young scholars seeking to understand democracy’s present challenges from a wide array of (inter)disciplinary investments including: anthropology, area studies, communication studies, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, global/transnational studies, legal studies, philosophy, political science, political theory, postcolonial studies, and sociology

Language Requirements
The language of instruction is English; thus all applicants have to demonstrate a strong command of spoken and written English to be able to participate actively in discussions at seminars and workshops. Some of the shortlisted applicants may be contacted for a telephone interview.

Please read the following directions carefully. 
Below is the list of the documents you need to prepare or arrange for submission:

1. Completed online SUN Application Form (see notes below)

2. Full curriculum vitae or resume, including a list of publications, if any 

Please upload your Curriculum Vitae or resume, including a list of publications, if any.

3. Statement of purpose (max. 1 page) 

In the Statement of Purpose, please describe how the course is relevant to your teaching, research, studies or professional work, and in what way you expect to benefit from your participation.
You are advised to consult the detailed course description on the course webpage so that the statement of purpose is in accordance with the main objectives of the course. 

Please provide a name, contact email, and phone number of a person (a faculty member, job supervisor, etc.) who can be contacted by the course directors to attest to your abilities, qualifications, and academic/professional performance.

4. Personal Statement on Financial Aid
Those who are eligible and wish to apply for financial aid should specify their reasons in the “Personal statement on financial aid” section (Funding page of the application form).

 

Optional attachments:
You can upload further optional documents on the Qualifications page such as academic documents that you think may be relevant to support your application in the 'Other Supporting Documents' section. All documents should be merged into a single PDF file not exceeding the size 2 MB. No passwords and encryption are allowed.

Completed CEU Summer University Application Form

We strongly advise the use of Google Chrome to enable the full functionality of the form.

Notes:

  • You may apply to a maximum of two summer courses. In case of being admitted, you can only attend both if the two courses do not overlap in time.
  • If you applied to CEU before, please use your existing login and password to start a new application. If you do not remember your password from last year click on Forgotten Password. With technical problems, bugs, or errors related to the online application forms please contact the CEU IT Help Desk.
  • Right after login, please select the ”Summer University” radio button from the "Type of course" list, and leave all other fields empty.
  • All application materials must be submitted with the online application form(s). Materials sent by postal mail, electronic mail, or fax are not considered.
  • The maximum allowable file size for upload is 2MB per file and the acceptable file formats are PDF, JPG, and JPEG. Ensure all security features (e.g. passwords and encryption) are removed from the documents before uploading them.
  • Applications cannot be edited after submission. Please submit your application only when it is 100% final and complete.
  • Further user instructions for the online application are included in the form itself. Should you have questions regarding the application form, check the relevant Frequently Asked Questions.
  • Applications submitted after the deadline will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Inquiries

If you need help or more information during the application process, please feel free to contact the SUN staff via email.

Notification

The SUN Office will notify applicants about the selection results in April. Please check the 'Dates and deadlines' section on the relevant course websites for notification deadlines planned earlier or later. The final decision is not open to appeal.