  {"id":185511,"date":"2023-10-23T14:48:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T00:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=185511"},"modified":"2023-10-23T14:48:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T00:48:59","slug":"town-hall-challenges-to-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/23\/town-hall-challenges-to-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Town hall to address challenges to democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_134455\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134455\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/manoa-art-nishimura-portfolio-capitol-in.jpg\" alt=\"Rioters inside the U S Capitol\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-134455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/manoa-art-nishimura-portfolio-capitol-in.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/manoa-art-nishimura-portfolio-capitol-in-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/manoa-art-nishimura-portfolio-capitol-in-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-134455\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rioters wander around the Capitol Bill rotunda during the January 6, 2021 siege of the building. (photo courtesy: Kent Nishimura)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In these modern times, the question may not be whether democracy is under threat in the U.S., but why&#8212;in this era of critical contemporary social, political and economic upheaval in North America, the Asia Pacific and beyond&#8212;is democratic backsliding occurring and what can be done about it?<\/p>\n<p>The public is invited to an open town hall meeting, &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/fcth23\/\">Contemporary Challenges to Democracy and Democratic Institutions<\/a>,&rdquo; on Friday, October 27, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa. The 2023 Fulbright Canada Colloquium Town Hall is the culmination of several days of meetings and related events, including an authors\u2019 workshop designed to produce an edited volume.<\/p>\n<p>Town hall panel participants will include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Davianna McGregor, retired <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa professor and founding member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a>\u2019 (<abbr>CSS<\/abbr>) <a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicstudies.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">Department of Ethnic Studies<\/a>, and former director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/oralhistory.hawaii.edu\/\">Center for Oral History<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Jane Kabubo-Mariara, executive director of the Partnership for Economic Policy based in Nairobi, Kenya.<\/li>\n<li>Rana Sarkar, Consul General of Canada in San Francisco\/Silicon Valley.<\/li>\n<li>Moderator Colin Moore, director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sci.manoa.hawaii.edu\/programs\/matsunaga-institute-for-peace\/\">Matsunaga Institute for Peace<\/a> at <abbr>CSS<\/abbr> and a political analyst.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The town hall will focus on the critical and increasingly complex challenges to democracy and democratic institutions in the U.S., Canada and the broader international community. It will examine whether creative institutional reforms can help address the following issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Heightened political and cultural polarization.<\/li>\n<li>Widening gaps between people and power.<\/li>\n<li>Threats to multi-ethnic democracies.<\/li>\n<li>Economic instability.<\/li>\n<li>Growing maldistribution of wealth and income.<\/li>\n<li>Discontent with democracy.<\/li>\n<li>The rise of populism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Past colloquiums have addressed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2018&#8212;The exploration of significant, complex issues surrounding sovereignty, sustainability and rights of and reconciliation for Indigenous peoples.<\/li>\n<li>In 2017&#8212;The future of trade and international economic cooperation between Canada and the U.S.<\/li>\n<li>In 2016&#8212;The examination and evaluation of North America\u2019s response to domestic and international challenges posed by increasing incidences of violent extremism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The 2023 Fulbright Canada Colloquium Town Hall is a partnership of <abbr>CSS<\/abbr>; Fulbright Canada; the State University of New York (<abbr>SUNY<\/abbr>) College at Plattsburgh; and the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p>Coordinating the colloquium are Michael Hawes, president and <abbr>CEO<\/abbr> of the Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the U.S. (aka Fulbright Canada); Denise Eby Konan, <abbr>CSS<\/abbr> dean; and Christopher Kirkey, director of the Center for the Study of Canada at <abbr>SUNY<\/abbr> Plattsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>Light refreshments will be served.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/fcth23\/\">More information is available from the website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The town hall panel participants are Davianna McGregor, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, Rana Sarkar and moderator Colin Moore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1526,301,229,1363,330,1026,9],"class_list":["post-185511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-center-for-oral-history","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-ethnic-studies","tag-manoa-research","tag-matsunaga-institute-for-peace","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185511"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185516,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185511\/revisions\/185516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}