Join us for a seminar organised by the Centre for the Study of Democracy, with speakers Dr Nick Cowen and Dr Aris Trantidis.
Seminar title
Is public ignorance a problem? An epistemic defense of real-existing democracies
Seminar location
Westminster Forum, Fifth Floor
32–38 Wells Street
London W1T 3UW
Seminar speakers
Dr Nick Cowen
Associate Professor, University of Lincoln
Nick Cowen is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lincoln, where he teaches Key Social Science Concepts, Human Rights, Social Issues and Social Justice, Images of Crime and Applying Research. His research explores the contributions of private enterprise and civil society towards crime prevention, social order, public health, and the environment. He has a PhD from King's College London and an M.Phil. in Political Theory from the University of Oxford.
Dr Aris Trantidis
Senior Lecturer, University of Lincoln
Aris Trantidis is an expert on democratic politics, with publications exploring democracy’s performance and resilience against authoritarianism, economic crisis, corruption and discrimination based on gender and minority status. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was previously a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI), and a Visiting Lecturer and Teaching Fellow at the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. Dr Trantidis is the author of the book Clientelism and Economic Policy: Greece and the Crisis (Routledge, 2016), and his research has been published in several journals, such as the Journal of European Public Policy, the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Politics, Polity, Review of Behavioral Economics, Constitutional Political Economy, and Democratization.
Seminar organiser
Centre for the Study of Democracy
The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), established in 1989, is based in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Westminster. At the Centre, academics working in politics and international relations undertake socially engaged, methodologically diverse and often interdisciplinary research that addresses a range of critical political challenges concerning democracy worldwide.
CSD has a longstanding international reputation for research excellence through a programme of publications, events and collaborations with academics, practitioners, policymakers, and activists. Research in Politics and International Studies at CSD was ranked 4th highest in the UK for impact in the Research Excellence Framework 2021.
The Centre has established numerous collaborations with scholars and universities around the world and has hosted encounters with public intellectuals, including Luc Boltanski, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, Bruno Latour, Richard Rorty, Quentin Skinner, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Charles Taylor, James Tully, and Michael Walzer. The CR Parekh lecture, instituted by Lord Bhikhu Parekh, has included lectures by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arundhati Roy, and Ashis Nandy.
CSD recognises that responding to contemporary social and political challenges requires engagement beyond the academy, so it actively welcomes dialogue and collaboration with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and activists worldwide. Professor Nitasha Kaul directs the Centre.
