Impetus for developing democracy for the future

During this year’s edition of the Humboldt Residency Programme being held from 3 August through 11 September, international experts from academia, civil society and the creative sector will develop ideas revolving around “Democracy 2.26 – Designing Political Participation”. Participants will scrutinize political participation as a concept and develop and test innovative formats for informal political participation.

Populist movements that call fundamental democratic values into question are currently attracting followers throughout the world. This development is being facilitated by growing distrust of democratic institutions and a feeling that current political representation is inadequate. In light of this, if democracies are to ensure their long-term stability, they must take their citizens’ diverse lived realities more into account and create an array of options for political participation. This is vital because a functioning democracy depends on its citizens doing more than just voting in elections, namely actively participating in political and social life.

The programme will begin on 3 August 2026 under the creative direction of the historian and cultural studies scholar Klaus Neumann with a get-acquainted and working phase at the Cultural Foundation Schloss Wiepersdorf in Brandenburg. This will be followed by a four-week stay in Berlin during which the group – whose members come from Cameroon, Canada, Mexico and Nepal, just to name a few countries – will plan networking meetings with experts from the political sector, civil society and academia and organise platforms for a dialogue for the public in Berlin.

Every year since 2022 the Humboldt Residency Programme has been bringing a transdisciplinary group of researchers, journalists, artists and activists together to work on a common topic during a six-week residency in Brandenburg and Berlin. The diverse range of professions, geographical origins and social backgrounds that the participants bring to the table will be conducive to producing innovative ideas and solutions that harness research findings and put them to use for the benefit of society. Using events and publications, the programme aims to provide perceptible impetus in academia, society and the political sector. The Residency Programme is financed by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and is conducted in cooperation with the Cultural Foundation Schloss Wiepersdorf.

This year’s participants:

• Lead: The historian and cultural studies scholar Klaus Neumann (Australia) works on (post-)colonialism, refugee and asylum policy and issues involving historical justice. 
• In his work as a philosophy professor Matthias Fritsch (Canada) focuses on environmental philosophy and political theory, particularly along the interface between climate change and democracy.
• Guy Beaudry Jengu Jengu (Cameroon) works as a political analyst in the Department for Governance and Democracy at the Nkafu Policy Institute.
• Xianan Jin (United Kingdom) is a feminist political scientist at the University of Exeter, where she teaches African politics and gender theory.
• Samik Kharel (Nepal) is an internationally published journalist, who has specialised in the impact digital technologies have on democracies, particularly with regard to youth movements.
• Daryna Kharuk (Poland) is a political scientist and studies the role of civil society in Ukraine during the Russian war of aggression.
• Kamila Kolodziejczyk (Canada), a doctoral candidate in political science, examines the influence the representation of young people has on their attitudes and political behaviour. 
• Akos Kopper (Hungary) is a political scientist with a focus on the role of humour and vulgarity in populist politics.
• Marcella Nery (Brazil) is the Programme Director at Delibera Brasil, a non-profit organisation dedicated to strengthening democracy through civic participation
• Katy Rubin (United Kingdom) is an expert and practitioner in the field of “Legislative Theatre”. She founded The People Act, a global platform for creative civic involvement.
• A professor of philology, Margarita Valdovinos (Mexico) researches cultural and linguist practices of Mexico’s indigenous peoples and actively promotes women’s participation in academia.
• Alethea Wong (Malaysia) supports government and civil society institutions in their efforts to refine and further develop administrative reforms and legislation.

Five participants have previously been sponsored through programmes offered by the Humboldt Foundation: Klaus Neumann through a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship, Matthias Fritsch, Akos Kopper and Margarita Valdovinos through a Humboldt Research Fellowship and Marcella Nery through a German Chancellor Fellowship.

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains an interdisciplinary network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians in more than 140 countries around the world – including 63 Nobel Prize winners.