Professor of Sociology at The New School for Social Research and Director of the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies

History

Democracy’s Endgame?

A plea for sustaining the infrastructure of hope

January 31, 2024 • by Elzbieta Matynia

Though surrounded by these largely man-made fires, we’ve at least been trying to put them out. It would be so much easier, though, to fight these fires if they were not fueled by massive efforts to dismantle the democratic order....

Democracy

A Connection That Never Expired

In 1974, Jeffrey Goldfarb went to Poland to do research about democracy—and put down lasting roots

July 7, 2021 • by Elzbieta Matynia and Claire Potter

Claire Potter: Elzbieta, let's begin with when you met Jeff Goldfarb. Elzbieta Matynia: Jeff and Naomi Goldfarb came to Poland in 1973—Jeff was on an IREX fellowship, and Naomi attended some studio classes at the Academy of Arts. I had just begun my graduate studies. But we were both interested in the same ...

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Vesna Kesic

In memoriam

December 31, 2020 • by Elzbieta Matynia

Photo: taken by Stephanie Damoff (provided by Elzbieta Matynia). Elzbieta Matynia is a Professor of Sociology at The New School for Social Research and Director of the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies.

Activism

A Halloween Uprising and Poland’s General Strike Over Abortion

A new generation of women rises up against an unholy – and sexist – alliance of church and state

November 6, 2020 • by Elzbieta Matynia

Poland’s Halloween has always been a solemn national holiday with pagan roots called All Souls Day, known long ago as Forefathers’ Eve, and immediately followed on November 1 by All Saints Day. Normally, it’s a contemplative period of reconnecting with those who are not with us anymore, whether grandparents, veterans, or ...

A Halloween Uprising and Poland’s General Strike Over Abortion

Event

Me, the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy

An online book talk sponsored by the Democracy Seminar on Friday, October 16, 11:00-1:00 EST

October 12, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb and Elzbieta Matynia

Populism erodes democracy in Europe, North America, and South America. It is a complex phenomenon that has mobilized many philosophers and political thinkers for some time now. For the most part, and not without reason, thinkers see populism as more than a threat to democracy: they see it as the ...

Democracy

Elections 2020

An interview with Jacek Kucharczyk about the upcoming Polish vote

June 26, 2020 • by Jacek Kucharczyk, Elzbieta Matynia and Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Professors Elzbieta Matynia and Jeffrey Goldfarb asked Dr. Jacek Kucharczyk, President of the Executive Board of the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw, to talk about the current situation, before the first round of voting. Jeffrey Goldfarb (JG): Jacek, it's great for the three of us to be getting together. I’ll ...

Activism

What Is to Be Done?

Three scholars of democracy respond to the protests

June 4, 2020 • by Eli Zaretsky, Jeffrey C. Goldfarb and Elzbieta Matynia

I believe this extraordinary nationwide mobilization is the best answer possible to the Democrats who engineered the destruction of the Sanders primary campaign -- I mean Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, James Carville, James Clyburn, Pete Buttigieg, and the innumerable reporters and media “experts” who from the beginning insisted ...

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A Boy in a Red Beret

Remembering Aso Tavitian, with sadness and gratitude

April 28, 2020 • by Elzbieta Matynia

Among Aso’s dinner guests there was, on the one hand, a quiet Turkish philanthropist named Osman Kavala, who had studied at NSSR in the early 1980s and was now well known for his support of human rights organizations in Turkey. On the other hand, there was the widely respected Archbishop ...

Democracy

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy and The Public Square

February 24, 2020 • by Elzbieta Matynia

“Democracies are not going to defend themselves. It is we the citizens who have to defend them. I believe it is not too late.” -- Adam Michnik, New School Centennial Lecture, October 2019 How can we resist the retreat from our beleaguered democracies and hold onto the embattled freedom we still have? I ...

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy

Revolution, Democracy, and Restoration Revisited

In Poland and beyond

July 11, 2018 • by Elzbieta Matynia

To be sure, the time is out of joint, and we feel as lost as Hamlet does when he bursts out: Oh, that ever I was born to set it right! Indeed, things appear not as they ought to, and one wonders how to set them right. Although this is a view from afar, painted ...

Democracy

Democracy Dies in Darkness

A keynote address from the Dramaturgies of Resistance conference

February 28, 2018 • by Elzbieta Matynia

I have been fascinated by a dimension of political life that occurred in the latter part of the twentieth century in both non-democratic and democratic contexts. I think of this dimension -- something I experienced myself -- as closely related to the politics of hope, and I call it performative. Just ...

Education

Democracy Then and Now

July 13, 2016 • by Elzbieta Matynia

Elzbieta Matynia's reflections on one of the great projects of The New School for Social Research, marking the twentieth five years of the Democracy and Diversity Institute in Poland. We worked together on this even before the Institute was established, working with independent intellectuals, academics and activists in the Democracy ...