The bi-annual colloquiums hosted by the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy aim at providing useful and substantive feedback to those presenting works in progress, both from peers and from a professor. They offer a friendly space for training presentations and explanations to an interdisciplinary audience, and for learning and engaging with works across disciplines on topics related with democracy and democratic practices from a broad approach. Mutual respect and collaborative learning are at the centre of these meetings joined by students, postdocs, visiting scholars and professors.

Our latest AHDC colloquium took place on 13 February 2024. The first presentation, by Leonardo Castilho (PhD on International Relations / Political Science IHEID), entitled “We the peoples: how new democracies changed sovereignty”, focused on the third wave of democratization to analyse how these countries adopted human rights treaties and adapted it to their notions of sovereignty. According to Leonardo’s work, some of “these new democracies also precipitated structural changes to the global multilateral system, leading to the strengthening of the international supervision of human rights, and the creation of new mechanisms, such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, complaints procedures by human rights treaty bodies, and other mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court”. The analysis avoids Eurocentric views to show the complexity of this process and the contributions of new democracies to the historical origins and foundations of the international supervision of human rights. The first round of comments was offered by Laurence Whitehead (Politics fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford University).

A second presentation, entitled “Mapping the cup: a tool in the activist’s handbag”, by Marie De Lutz (PhD Researcher in Anthropology and Sociology. Affiliate Gender Centre) explored the circulation of the menstrual cup in Colombia. Maria’s work in this chapter aims to situate the menstrual cup in a wider landscape of social, political, and legal activisms in Colombia, in the marketplace, and in debates around menstruation and development, to bring the reader toward the circulation of the object outside of institutional settings. The topic allowed for the exploration of many issues in conversation, such as consumerism, the protection of the environment, proximity politics, human rights, and subjectivities. This is because, for instance, the right to menstrual health established by the Colombian court in 2019 includes access to potable water and the sanitary conditions necessary to clean oneself, access to products that absorb menstrual blood, and the space and time to change those menstrual products. A first round of comments was offered by Mara Matta (Associate Professor, University of Rome La Sapienza).

Finally, a last presentation by Itatí Moreno (UNSAM-AHDC) and Ana Stevanato (UNSAM) focused on “The role of the State in environmental injustice cases. The cases of fumigations and waste management in municipalities of Buenos Aires, Argentina”. The authors claim that existing work tends to address the state's role in environmental injustice from a structural perspective, while they focus on the public dimension of the state's involvement, examining how state institutions contribute to or perpetuate environmental injustice at the local level and how affected communities perceive this. This research is based on two cases of environmental injustice in Buenos Aires, Argentina: Pergamino and La Matanza. The first round of comments and suggestions was offered by Jacqueline Behrend (Professor, Universidad Nacional de San Martín)

The AHDC colloquium is a flexible meeting point for advanced master students, post-MPT doctoral candidates and postdoctoral fellows to share their work with colleagues, researchers and faculty and receive constructive feedback. It is convened by AHCD Research Fellow Yanina Welp.

If you are a Graduate Institute’s community member and would like to join, please get in touch with us. This activity is not open to the public.

You may subscribe to updates about AHCD activities geared toward PhD students or express your interest in partaking in a future Colloquium by emailing democracy@graduateinstitute.ch.