Global Democracy Conference 2026: Confronting Public Support for Anti-Democratic Leaders

Susan Stokes | University of Chicago

Susan Stokes is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and Director of the Chicago Center on Democracy at the University of Chicago. She currently serves as President of the American Political Science Association. Her most recent book, The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies, examines how elected leaders dismantle democratic norms from within.

David Altman | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

David Altman is a full professor at the Instituto de Ciencia Política of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a project manager for the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) research collaborative. His research focuses on comparative democracy, direct democracy mechanisms, and citizen participation, and he is the author of Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2019). He holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame.

Joseph Asunka | Afrobarometer

Joseph Asunka is the chief executive officer of Afrobarometer, the pan-African research network that measures public attitudes toward democracy, governance, and development across more than 40 African countries. He holds a PhD in political science from UCLA and previously served as a program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, managing grants supporting transparency and civic participation in developing countries.

Noah Bullock | Cristosal

Noah Bullock serves as executive director of Cristosal, a regional human rights organization with 25 years of experience and a presence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Bullock first came to El Salvador as a human rights intern in 2005 after completing a degree in peace and conflict studies at the University of Montana and has led Cristosal’s documentation of abuses under successive governments, including the current Bukele administration’s state of exception. He continues his organization’s operations under increasing government pressure. 

Frances Cayton | Cornell University

Frances Cayton is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government at Cornell University, where her dissertation examines how civil society participation can encourage citizens to depolarize and resist democratic erosion. Her research spans democratic backsliding, civil society, and political communication, with a regional focus on post-Soviet states. She will join Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law as the Einstein-Moos Postdoctoral Fellow in 2026-27.

Jhanisse Vaca Daza | Human Rights Foundation

Jhanisse Vaca Daza is activism outreach specialist and director of the Freedom Fellowship program at the Human Rights Foundation and co-founder of Ríos de Pie (Standing Rivers), a nonviolent citizen movement in Bolivia. She has trained activists in nonviolent resistance strategy across Latin America and been recognized with the European Parliament’s Sákharov Fellowship. 

Joel Day | University of Notre Dame

Joel Day is managing director of the Democracy Initiative at the University of Notre Dame. He is a scholar-practitioner with more than 20 years of leadership experience spanning government, nonprofits, and political campaigns. His research addresses political violence, democratic pluralism, and religious ideology, and has been published in the Journal of Democracy, the Journal of Peace Research, and Politics and Religion. He is a recipient of the American Political Science Association’s best article prize in Religion and Politics.

Seda Demiralp | Işık University, Turkey

Seda Demiralp is associate professor of political science in the Department of International Relations at Işık University in Turkey, where her research focuses on democratization, state-business relations, and Turkish politics and elections. She is the director of the Emotions and Politics Lab at Işık University, which examines the rising role of emotions in Turkish political life. Her work on populism and competitive authoritarianism has been published in Comparative Politics, The Middle East Journal, and Third World Quarterly, among other venues. 

William Dobson | Journal of Democracy

William J. Dobson is co-editor of the Journal of Democracy. Previously he served as chief international editor at NPR, overseeing the network’s international coverage and a team of correspondents across 17 overseas bureaus. He is the author of The Dictator’s Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy, an examination of how authoritarian regimes adapt to and survive popular challenge.

Florian Foos | London School of Economics

Florian Foos is associate professor in political behavior in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he specializes in election campaigns, political mobilization, and persuasion in European democracies. Using field experiments, he studies how campaign methods and interpersonal interactions between political actors and citizens affect turnout, political persuasion, and activism, and how journalists’ coverage of extreme politicians shapes voter beliefs. He holds a DPhil from Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Laura Gamboa | University of Notre Dame

Laura Gamboa is associate professor of democracy and global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, where her research examines the survival and quality of democratic systems with a focus on opposition strategies against democratic erosion. Her book Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2022) analyzes how opposition strategic choices can decisively affect would-be autocrats' efforts to dismantle democracy, and received the Latin American Studies Association's Donna Lee Van Cott Award for best book on political institutions. She holds a PhD in political science from the University of Notre Dame.

Scott Mainwaring | University of Notre Dame

Scott Mainwaring is the Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and a former director of the Kellogg Institute. His research focuses on political parties and party systems, democratic and authoritarian regimes, and political institutions in Latin America. His book with Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall (Cambridge University Press, 2013), won best-book prizes from the American Political Science Association and the Latin American Studies Association.

Joshua Tucker | New York University

Joshua Tucker is the Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor of Politics and co-director of the Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics (CSMAP) at New York University. His research focuses on the intersection of the digital information environment, social media, and political behavior, including work on partisan polarization, propaganda, disinformation, and influence operations.

Rodrigo Zarazaga | Center for Research and Social Action (CIAS), Argentina

Rodrigo Zarazaga, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, and founder and principal researcher at the Instituto Universitario CIAS (Center for Research and Social Action) in Argentina. He holds a PhD in political science from UC Berkeley and conducts research on redistribution, clientelism, and electoral politics in Latin America. He also founded the CIAS School of Political Leadership, which trains emerging leaders across Argentina’s political spectrum in democratic participation.

Juan Albarracín | University of Illinois, Chicago

Juan Albarracín is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where his research lies at the intersection of democratization, criminal and political violence, criminal governance, and political institutions. His work examines threats to political and civil rights in contexts of mass-scale violence and extra-legal governance, with particular attention to post-conflict violence against social movement leaders and transitional justice in Colombia. His research has received recognition from the American Political Science Association, the Latin American Studies Association, and the Network for the Study of Drugs in Latin America.

Jorge Aragón Trelles | Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Jorge Aragón Trelles is research professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where his research focuses on democracy, decentralization, and political religion in Latin America. He holds an MA in Latin American studies and a PhD in political science from the University of Florida.

Florindo Chivucute | Friends of Angola

Florindo Chivucute is founder and executive director of Friends of Angola, an advocacy organization established in 2014 to strengthen Angolan civil society and promote democracy, transparency, and good governance. Under his leadership, the organization has pioneered innovative civic engagement projects—including Radio Angola and the Zuela democracy app—and led Global Magnitsky sanctions submissions in the United States and the United Kingdom, partnering with the National Endowment for Democracy, REDRESS, and Transparency International. He holds a master's in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.

Abby Córdova | University of Notre Dame

Abby Córdova is associate professor of global affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, where she directs the Notre Dame Eliminating Violence against Women (E-VAW) Lab and is a faculty fellow of the Kellogg Institute. Her research examines how inequality, criminal violence, gender-based violence, and migration shape democratic engagement in Latin America.

Caroline Costello | Atlantic Council

Caroline Costello is assistant director of the Global China Hub at the Atlantic Council, where her work focuses on China's presence in Latin America and Africa. Her recent publications include analyses of China's role in illegal logging in Africa and the values dimension of US–China competition, with commentary in Foreign Policy and the New York Times. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, she worked on the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program; she holds a BA in political science and international affairs from the George Washington University.

Géssica de Freitas | University of Notre Dame

Géssica de Freitas is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in comparative politics and quantitative methods, where her research examines institutional change, decision-making, and governability in Latin American legislatures. At the Kellogg Institute, she leads a project on the growing empowerment of congresses in presidential systems historically dominated by strong executives. Supported by a Presidential Fellowship, she previously earned an MA in political science from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil.

Norman Eisen | Brookings Institution

Norman Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and chair of its Anti-Corruption, Democracy, and Security (ACDS) Project, a multi-year initiative evaluating anti-corruption efforts and emerging threats to democracy worldwide. He served as special counsel to President Barack Obama for ethics and government reform, as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2014, and as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of President Trump. He is co-founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund and the author of six books on rule of law and democracy.

Joshua Eisenman | University of Notre Dame

Joshua Eisenman is professor of politics in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, where his research focuses on the political economy of China's development and its foreign relations with the global South, particularly Africa. He is co-author, with former U.S. Ambassador David Shinn, of China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement (Columbia University Press, 2023). He served as a policy analyst in the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission and is a senior fellow for China studies at the American Foreign Policy Council.

Archon Fung | Harvard University

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen democratic governance, focusing on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He is co-founder of Participedia, an open platform for participatory governance worldwide, and his books include Empowered Participation: Reinventing Urban Democracy and Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency.

Shannon Green | Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE)

Shannon N. Green is president and CEO of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), a network of foundations advancing democracy through philanthropy. Before joining PACE, she served as assistant to the administrator of the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Task Force at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She holds an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.

Amr Hamzawy | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Amr Hamzawy is senior fellow and director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and one of Egypt's most prominent political scientists. His research focuses on governance in the Middle East and North Africa, democratization processes in Egypt, political movements and civil society, contemporary Arab political thought, and human rights. He served as an elected member of Egypt's People's Assembly following the January 25, 2011 revolution; his book On the Habits of Neoauthoritarianism: Politics in Egypt Between 2013 and 2019 was published in Arabic in 2019.

Daniel Hegedüs | German Marshall Fund

Daniel Hegedüs is regional director for Central Europe at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where his research focuses on democratic and rule-of-law backsliding in the European Union, populism, and the European and foreign affairs of the Visegrad countries. He serves as principal investigator of the EU Horizon project Neo-Authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response (AUTHLIB) and is frequently quoted in the Financial Times, the New York Times, AFP, and Der Spiegel. He studied political science, history, and European law at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Melissa Hooper | German Marshall Fund

Melissa Hooper is deputy managing director and senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund's Strategic Democracy Initiatives, where she leads the Rule of Law Action Network and was a founding member of the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group. An attorney with more than 20 years of experience in accountability law, high-impact litigation, and human rights advocacy, she previously served as senior adviser at USAID, led policy advocacy at Human Rights First, and directed the American Bar Association's Rule of Law Initiative office in Moscow.

Sebastián Líppez-De Castro | Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Sebastián Líppez-De Castro is dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations and professor in the Department of Political Science at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. His research and teaching span public administration, deliberative democracy, smart-city governance, and subnational politics.

Noam Lupu | Vanderbilt University

Noam Lupu is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and director of the Center for Global Democracy, which houses LAPOP Lab and its flagship AmericasBarometer survey. His research focuses on comparative political behavior, political parties and partisanship, and political representation, and his work analyzing public tolerance for anti-democratic behavior has informed scholarly and policy debates about democratic backsliding. He holds a PhD in politics from Princeton University.

Derek Mitchell | University of Notre Dame

Derek J. Mitchell is a distinguished visiting professor of the practice at the Keough School of Global Affairs, as well as a non-resident senior adviser to the Office of the President and the Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Mitchell previously served as president of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs from 2018 to 2023. From 2012 to 2016 he was the first U.S. ambassador to Burma (Myanmar) in 22 years, during the country's nascent democratic transition.

Fr. Luis Fernando Múnera Congote, S.J. | Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Fr. Luis Fernando Múnera Congote, S.J., is president of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, a position he assumed in March 2023 for a six-year term. He previously served as dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations and as co-director of the University Planning Program on Peace and Reconciliation, and was an associate professor in the Faculty of Philosophy. He holds a licentiate in philosophy from Javeriana, a bachelor's in theology, and a doctorate in philosophy from the Centre Sèvres in Paris.

Maria Valeria Palanza | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Maria Valeria Palanza is associate professor at the Instituto de Ciencia Política and dean of the Faculty of History, Geography and Political Science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research focuses on democracy, executive-legislative relations, and institutional design in Latin America, with attention to executive decrees, presidential vetoes, and legislative urgency. She is the author of Checking Presidential Power: Executive Decrees and the Legislative Process in New Democracies (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and holds a PhD from Princeton University.

Patrick Quirk | Atlantic Council

Patrick Quirk is senior advisor to the Atlantic Council's Freedom and Prosperity Center, where he leads the Future of Democracy Assistance Project, and a nonresident senior fellow with the GeoStrategy Initiative at the Scowcroft Center. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and previously served as vice president for strategy, innovation, and impact at the International Republican Institute.

Rachel Beatty Riedl | Cornell University

Rachel Beatty Riedl is professor of government and the Peggy J. Koenig '78 Director of the Center on Global Democracy at Cornell University. Her research examines democracy and authoritarianism with a focus on participation, institutions, political parties, and local governance in Africa. She is the author of the award-winning Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa and co-author of From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa, and previously served as director of Cornell's Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Kevin Sheives | International Forum for Democratic Studies, NED

Kevin Sheives is director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he leads NED's intellectual engagement on democracy issues, strategic forecasting, and policy planning. He previously served nearly fifteen years in the U.S. government, with the State Department's China Desk and East Asia and Pacific Affairs bureau. 

Dan Slater | University of Michigan

Dan Slater is the James Orin Murfin Professor of Political Science and director of the Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan, specializing in the politics and history of dictatorship and democracy with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. He is the author of From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia (Princeton University Press, 2022). 

Laura Thornton | Senior Democracy Expert

Laura Thornton is the senior expert on global democracy programs. She brings nearly 30 years of experience in the sector, having served as senior vice president of the Democracy Hub at the German Marshall Fund, and as director of global programs at International IDEA, the McCain Institute, and the National Democratic Institute, including in Georgia and across Asia.

Pedro A. Urruchurtu Noselli | Office of María Corina Machado

Pedro Urruchurtu is a Venezuelan political scientist and coordinator of international affairs for opposition leader and 2024 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado. Through Vente Venezuela, he has integrated the party into transnational liberal networks, including the Liberal Network of Latin America (RELIAL) and Liberal International. After arrest warrants in March 2024, he sheltered for 412 days at the Argentine embassy in Caracas before leaving in May 2025; he received Georgetown University's 2026 Impact Award for his commitment to democracy in Venezuela.

Julia Vaughn | Common Cause Indiana

Julia Vaughn is executive director of Common Cause Indiana, a state office of the nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to democratic accountability, voting rights, and ethics in government. She joined Common Cause in 1995 and leads policy development, lobbying, grassroots organizing, and coalition building in Indiana, with particular focus on redistricting reform, campaign finance, and election integrity.

Catalina Vega Méndez | University of Notre Dame

Catalina Vega Méndez is a postdoctoral research associate at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where her work centers on democratic governance, migration, and political behavior in Latin America. Her dissertation, Shifting Borders, Shifting Votes, examined the political effects of large and sudden migration influxes in Colombia in the context of the Venezuelan migration crisis. She earned a PhD in political science from Purdue University.

Sarah Yerkes | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Sarah Yerkes is senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where her research focuses on democracy and governance, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, and political and economic reform in Tunisia. She is the editor of Geopolitics and Governance in North Africa (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) and a former member of the U.S. State Department's Policy Planning staff focused on North Africa.