Grad Student Workshop: Constraints on Democratic Imaginations

This session examines how political thought, education, and discourse shape—and often constrain—the horizons of democratic possibility. Presenters interrogate the historical and intellectual boundaries that define what counts as “democratic” imagination, tracing how systems of knowledge, power, and pedagogy both enable and limit civic agency.

Peter S. Baron (JD/MA in Philosophy, Georgetown University) will present “Constructing an Overton Window: How Enlightenment Discourse Narrowed the Potential of Abolition.” His paper revisits the anti-slavery writings of Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Condorcet, revealing how their ostensibly abolitionist rhetoric constrained the radical potential of emancipation. Baron argues that by defining abolition as a gradual, elite-managed reform rather than a revolutionary act of justice, Enlightenment discourse preserved the racial and economic hierarchies of its time, an inheritance that continues to shape liberal reformism today.

Ariana Zetlin (Ph.D. candidate in Education, Culture, and Society, University of Pennsylvania) will present “Epistemic Fallibility for Democracy: How Intellectual Humility Enables Civic Dispositional Development.” Her work explores intellectual humility as a foundational civic virtue, arguing that recognizing one’s epistemic limitations is essential to democratic participation and equitable deliberation. Drawing on civic education theory and pedagogical research, Zetlin demonstrates how classrooms can cultivate intellectual humility to strengthen civic efficacy, fairness, and self-protection in democratic life.

Together, these papers reveal the intellectual and pedagogical boundaries that both define and limit democratic imagination, from Enlightenment rationality to contemporary civic education, and invite reflection on how rethinking these boundaries might open pathways toward more inclusive and emancipatory democratic futures.

***Register to receive link to papers. Zoom link will also be sent for those who can not join us in person.

Lunch provided.