Erica Chenoweth
Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment
Civil Protest
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.
Related Programs
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.
Meet the Experts
Zoe Marks
Lecturer in Public Policy
Liz McKenna
Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Upcoming Events
The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky
Online Event
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST
The Latest News, Research, and Resources
Video
Reinvigorating People Power: Lessons Learned from Civil Resistance Leaders
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
Crowd Counting Consortium: 2023 Trans Day of Visibility
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
Crowd Counting Consortium: Pushing Back Against Anti-LGBTQ Legislation
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.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Echoes of Police Violence
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Review of Left-Wing Protest Activity in 2022
CCC logged more than 13,400 left-wing protests across more than 2,000 different U.S. cities and towns
Commentary
Counting Crowds Consortium: Review of Right-Wing U.S. Protest Activity in 2022
CCC logged more than 5,700 right-wing events in 2022
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: 2020 Anti-Racism Protests and Their Aftermath in Connecticut
This is a guest post by Mason Holland, an undergraduate student at the University of Connecticut majoring in Political Science. He also serves as President of the Student Body.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Escalating Right-Wing Attacks on the LGBTQ+ Community
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Demographic Change and Anti-CRT Protest in U.S. Counties
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Right-Wing Backlash Against COVID-19 Mitigation Measures
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Pro-Palestine Movement of 2021
Video
Social Movements in the Post-Trump Era: Organizing for Policy Change
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
Book Talk — Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First Century America
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.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Protest Themes in Biden’s First 100 Days
So far, the Crowd Counting Consortium has logged just over 5,300 events since Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.
Commentary