Holding Space for Democracy: A conversation with Professor Anand Pandian
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Democracy depends on more than institutions. It needs places where people can meet, exchange ideas, and work together on their shared future. The SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins takes its name from one of history’s best examples: the ancient Athenian agora. This public square was the center of civic life, where Athenians learned the rights and responsibilities of democracy and practiced the skills of public participation. The Institute brings that tradition into the present, working with community members who are creating modern agoras in classrooms, communities, and around the world.
We’ll be joined by Mary Bruce, assistant director of public programs for the SNF Agora Institute, who will share about the latest work of the SNF Agora Institute, and welcome Johns Hopkins University Professor Anand Pandian, author of the new book Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down, which is described as “an anthropologist’s quest to understand the deep social and political divides in American society, and the everyday strategies that can overcome them” and “a groundbreaking and ultimately hopeful exploration of the ruptures in our social fabric, and courageous efforts to rebuild a collective life beyond them.”
This series is presented in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute and Hopkins at Home, the university’s online platform that offers lectures, resources, and experiences from across Hopkins directly to your laptop.
Anand Pandian is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. His books include Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life and How to Take Them Down, and A Possible Anthropology: Methods for Uneasy Times. Anand serves as President of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, and as a curator of the Ecological Design Collective, a community for radical ecological imagination and collaboration. He lives with his family in Baltimore, where he is currently working on a new book project on decay, waste, and the crafting of ecological futures.
