The Marquette Democracy Project brings social-movement theories to life by engaging the subjects of these theories—today’s activists fighting for democracy and social justice around the world—to discuss their stories, their personal experiences with activism, and the challenges they face.

Democracy activists from around the world visit Marquette annually to give class lectures and public talks. Unlike traditional campus visits, which center on a single lecture, activists involved in the Democracy Project spend multiple days with students and engage with them in a variety of settings. The sustained nature of these visits provides students with organic opportunities to engage in conversation with activists.

Our website spreads the conversation beyond the borders of campus. By posting short video interviews with each activist, we make these their stories and perspectives available to a global audience. By organizing our video interviews thematically, we hope to provide a tool for educators and students to draw comparative lessons from our activists’ stories. Our hope is that students of activism across the world will be able to draw lessons and inspiration from these short interviews both inside and outside the classroom.

From start to finish, students drive the Democracy Project. Senior International Affairs majors host our visiting activists as part of their capstone seminar, and they develop the interview questions we use for the videos on our website. Digital Media students record and edit the documentary videos. Journalism students advertise the visits by conducting advance Skype interviews and publishing them in the Marquette Wire as well as international student outlets such as PopUp News and the Global News Relay.