Matthew Cebul
Lead Research Fellow for the Nonviolent Action Lab, AY2025-2026
Nonviolent Action Lab
Understanding how nonviolent action can achieve democratic aims.
Related Programs
Crowd Counting Consortium, Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes Data Project, Women in Resistance Data Project
Nonviolent resistance movements defended democratic values and institutions throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. However, the trend seems to have shifted. Over the past decade, authoritarian backsliding has occurred across the globe, and mass movements demanding democracy have been defeated in about 90% of cases since 2010.
The Nonviolent Action Lab is an innovation hub for research on advancing democracy worldwide through civil resistance. The Lab produces and disseminates up-to-date knowledge on nonviolent action, how it works, global trends in success and failure, trends in political violence and state repression, and analysis of these trends.
“Authoritarianism is winning — particularly against pro-democracy movements. Movements need a new playbook for responding to these developments![]()
Erica Chenoweth
Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment
AI and Democracy Movements Project
The AI and Democracy Movements Project explores the impacts of AI on the strategy, operations, and outcomes of pro-democratic social movements.
Now Streaming: Nonviolent Action Lab Podcast
The new Nonviolent Action Lab Podcast brings you the latest research, insights, and ideas on how nonviolent action can — or sometimes fails — to transform injustice. Each week, Nonviolent Action Lab’s Jay Ulfelder welcomes experts from the field, scholars, organizers, and advocates to discuss nonviolent movements around the world. Find new episodes listed below, via Simplecast, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Meet the Team
Erica Chenoweth
Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment
Cassy Dorff
Research Fellow, November 2025-April 2026
Freddy Guevara
Democracy Visiting Fellow, AY2024-2026
Soha Hammam
Research Project Manager, Nonviolent Action Lab
Jonathan Jayes-Green
Democracy Visiting Fellow, AY2024-2026
Jie (Jason) Lian
Democracy Visiting Fellow, Reimagining Democracy Program, AY2024-2025
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Nonviolent Action Lab, AY2025-2026
David Meyer
Senior Fellow, AY2025-2026
Jeremy Pressman
Senior Research Fellow, AY2025-2026
Amelia Roskin-Frazee
Predoctoral Fellow, AY2025-2026
Christopher Shay
Research Associate, Crowd Counting Consortium
Upcoming Events
People, Power, Change: Marshall Ganz in Conversation with Erica Chenoweth
Hybrid Event
Bloomberg Center for Cities, Taubman Third Floor, Harvard Kennedy School
12:00 pm – 1:15 pm EST
The Breakdown
Hybrid Event
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm EST
The latest news, resources, and research
Commentary
Overview of Protest Activity Around the 2024 Democratic National Convention
As part of its regular work tracking political protest activity across the United States, the Crowd Counting Consortium (CCC) closely followed events around this year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Podcast
Episode 6: What happened in Venezuela’s elections?
In this episode, host Jay Ulfelder sits down with Nonviolent Action Lab Research Fellow Freddy Guevara to discuss the outcome of Venezuela’s elections and what that means for the state of democracy in the country.
Commentary
The Real Numbers: Tracking Crowd Sizes at Presidential Rallies
This post uses the Crowd Counting Consortium’s data on U.S. protest activity since 2017 to estimate and compare the average size of the crowds at political rallies featuring Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and, since late July 2024, Kamala Harris.
Video
Political Violence and the 2024 Presidential Election
This webinar convened scholars and practitioners in a conversation about how to de-escalate and sideline election-related violence in the wake of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Podcast
Episode 5: Independent Protest Journalism
Host Jay Ulfelder sits down with journalists Talia Jane, Raven, and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel to discuss the impact of independent journalism on protest activity and social movements.
Podcast
Episode Four: The Movement to Stop Cop City
Host Jay Ulfelder sits down with Joseph Brown, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston, to discuss a mass mobilization in Atlanta to stop a new a police training center amid environmental and community rights concerns.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: An Empirical Overview of Recent Pro-Palestine Protests at U.S. Schools
Crowd Counting Consortium data show more than 3,700 days with pro-Palestinian protest activity at over 500 U.S. schools since October 7, 2023, including encampments at more than 130 of them.
Podcast
Episode Three: The SCOTUS Marches
In episode three of the Nonviolent Action Lab podcast, host Jay Ulfelder talks with two people at the heart of DC-area protests against the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Feature
Freddy Guevara MC/MPA 2024 is not giving up on the global struggle for democracy
Imprisoned and now exiled for his opposition to the Venezuelan government, Guevara is working to stem the growing tide of authoritarianism.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Three Things the Pro-Palestine Movement Is Not
New Crowd Counting Consortium analysis from Nonviolent Action Lab Program Director Jay Ulfelder sets the record straight on arrests numbers and claims of violence stemming from protests sparked by the war in Gaza.
Podcast
Episode Two: 1,300 Days of BLM Demonstrations in Wooster, Ohio
In the second episode of the Nonviolent Action Lab Podcast, Désirée Weber describes what 1,300 days of protest and political pressure looked like in Wooster, Ohio in 2020
Podcast
Episode One: Meet the Nonviolent Action Lab
Host Jay Ulfelder sits down with Professor Erica Chenoweth for the first episode in the new podcast series.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: U.S. Protest Rhetoric Tracks Looming Famine in Gaza
The imminent famine in Gaza shows up in Crowd Counting Consortium (CCC) data as a sharp increase in references to hunger and starvation in protesters’ chants and signs.
Video
Confronting Dictators: Lessons from Egypt, Russia, and Venezuela
Panelists from the Nonviolent Action Lab discuss their experiences, lessons learned, and perspectives on their respective struggles, nations, and roles have evolved during their time at Harvard.
Commentary
Crowd Counting Consortium: Israel/Palestine Protest Data Dashboards
To make it easier to find up-to-date information on pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protest activity in the United States since October 7, 2023, the Crowd Counting Consotium recently created a pair of interactive data dashboards separately covering the two.