New Salzburg Global report examines the role of American Studies in reinforcing democratic values
Democratic systems in the US and worldwide face complex challenges and threats. Authoritarian power, populism, anti-democratic propaganda, and political polarization have reshaped geopolitics and put democracy on the defensive. In addition, economic and racial divisions are driving political and cultural polarization, and the landscape of power, pluralism, and representation is shifting unlike any time in the last three decades.
In November, Salzburg Global Seminar hosted in its historic home Schloss Leopoldskron the Democracy on the Front Lines: Polarization, Culture and Resilience in America and the World program, bringing together public and private sector professionals, along with academics teaching about the United States in universities across the rest of the world.
This program, the first on-site American Studies session since 2019, explored how democracies are responding to internal and external threats and examined the role of American Studies in reinforcing democratic values for the next 75 years.
This report summarizes the discussions and insights that took place during this year’s session, including the effects of current dynamics and unreconciled historical roots of the US’ image and influence worldwide, the future of the field of American Studies and how it should be reorganized to include more diverse voices, what the US can learn from democratic innovations in other countries and how citizens, media, and institutions around the world can re-engage across divides to build resilience.
Download the full report as a PDF
We also invite you to watch the 2022 Ron Clifton Lecture in American Studies. This lecture was inaugurated in 2018 to recognize the long service of the late Ron Clifton to the field of American studies at Salzburg Global Seminar. Ron Clifton sadly passed away in 2021, but Fellows had a chance to fondly remember him in Salzburg, joined by his widow Gwili and grandson Ryan.
This year marked the 75th edition of the Salzburg Global American Studies program, and the 2022 edition of the Ron Clifton lecture was given by Heinz Ickstadt, professor emeritus in American literature at the Kennedy Institute of North American Studies, Free University Berlin.
When explaining the reasoning behind the topic of his lecture, Heinz said: "I am in that phase of my life when I tend to reminisce and try to give account. Since my long academic life was committed to American Studies, I wondered why that was, and although I am aware of the mix between coincidence/opportunity and self-construction, I believe that my career was rooted in certain moments of experience (a seminar on Melville, the physical exposure to “America” and the significance it had for me from childhood on.)
"I also believe that a temperamental affinity to an idea of democracy built on communication) led me to embrace the democratic belief that is at the core of American Studies. At the same time, my own process of disillusionment ran parallel to the redefinition of American Studies that has characterized the development of the field during the last thirty years or so. I tried to reflect on my original enthusiasm, on where I stand now in an effort to be realistic and optimistic at the same time – something that brought me to John Dewey’s old-age essay on “Creative Democracy.”
Watch the full lecture below: