Abolition-democracy (here and now) featuring Dr. Melissa Williams
The 2026 Elaine Stavro Distinguished Visiting Scholar
Event Details
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Thursday, November 19, 2026
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
City: Peterborough
Building: Bagnani Hall, Traill College
Cost: Free
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Location: Bagnani Hall, Traill College, Trent University
Speaker: Dr. Melissa Williams, Professor, UofT
Lecture Abstract: Democratic backsliding is not just the erosion of existing democratic institutions, but also the resurgence of old forms of racial, colonial, and patriarchal authoritarianism and the rollback of hard-won rights against these forms of domination. This lecture turns to W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of “abolition-democracy,” coined to capture the brief moment of multiracial democracy in the United States after the abolition of slavery and the end of the Civil War, as an essential resource for meeting the challenges of our own times: how to hold onto our ideals of democracy while also combating the most anti-democratic tendencies in contemporary politics.
Speaker Bio: Melissa Williams is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, where she also served as Founding Director of the Centre for Ethics. A political theorist, her work has focused the relationship between democratic ideals and structural injustices, and on decentering Euro-American political thought in the field of political theory. Her published works include Voice, Trust, and Memory: Marginalized Groups and the Failings of Liberal Representation (1998) and (as editor) Deparochializing Political Theory (2020).
Registration: trentu.ca/stavrolectures
For more information about the David Poole lecture in Mathematics, please visit the Community Speaker Series website.
Community Speaker Series
At Trent University, we believe in the power of lifelong learning and professional development for our alumni, staff, faculty, students, and community members. Each year, Trent offers public lectures featuring distinguished visiting scholars and experts, sharing ideas and knowledge on subjects such as the Environment, Business and Public Policy, Philosophy, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Thanks to generous philanthropic support, these talks are free and open to both the Trent community and the public.
Contact Info
For more information, please email communityspeakerseries@trentu.ca.