Protest is the bedrock of democracy. But why do people take to the streets, and how do protestors achieve change? At the Ash Center, we’re working to answer these questions.
From the Boston Tea Party and the U.S. civil rights movement to contemporary climate action demonstrations, civil protest is a fundamental tool for influencing political change. While protest movements are an indelible part of contemporary political life, little is often understood about what motivates people to take to the streets and how they achieve nonviolent political goals.
Our scholars analyze protest movements, learn from protestors themselves, and develop tools to help understand why some protests succeed and others fail.
Q+A
In a new study, Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks examine youth and LGBTQ+ nonviolent protest participation rates and the impact they might be having on evolving patterns of civil resistance around the world.
Commentary
After a year that saw historic levels of anti-LGBTQ+ protest activity, legislative action, and online jawboning, millions of people turned out in May and June 2023 for hundreds of LGBTQ+ pride celebrations across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Commentary
On Saturday, May 20, 2023, more than 1,000 tenants, union members, community organizers, and politicians gathered at Cadman Plaza in the rain and then marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to call for lower rents in New York City and the passage of state legislation to protect tenants from eviction without good cause.
Commentary
In late 2022, I guessed that the surge in anti-LGBTQ+ right-wing protests we saw in the summer and fall of last year would ebb after the elections.
Feature
Shady ElGhazaly Harb MC/MPA 2023, a prominent youth activist during the 2011 uprising, finds new ways to understand the continuing struggle for democracy in Egypt during his time at Harvard Kennedy School.
Video
The Ash Center invites you to watch a panel discussion with civil resistance leaders from around the world discussing their experiences and lessons learned from fighting dictatorships over the past ten years.
Commentary
Each year since 2009, people around the world have gathered on March 31 (or close to it) to mark International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV).
Commentary
For the past three legislative cycles, state lawmakers have tabled record numbers of bills that harmfully target LGBTQ+ people or seek to enforce chauvinistic ideas about sexuality and gender norms.
Video
In this discussion, Ash Center Democracy Postdoctoral Fellow Johnnie Lotesta talked with leaders from the environmental justice, gun violence prevention, labor, and immigration movements about how they balanced these commitments in the course of their work.
Video
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation hosted a book talk on Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America with co-authors Elizabeth McKenna and Michelle Oyakawa.
Feature
Kennedy School Assistant Professor Yanilda González delves into the roots of police violence in democratic countries in her latest book.
Video
The Ash Center and Carr Center for Human Rights hosted an event for the launch of Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America by HKS Assistant Professor Yanilda María González.
Video
To what extent have these organizations proven better equipped to deal with the pandemic response, and what are the challenges that these associations face when organizing in the age of COVID-19? In addition, how can they seize this moment to turn their organizing into power and influence in political and economic life?