The Democracy + Media Lab is a multidisciplinary faculty initiative at the Latinx Research Center (formerly the Center for Latino Policy Research) of the University of California, Berkeley. As a “lab,” our work as scholars and community partners focuses on the conditions and practices of democracy from the perspective of a multiplicity of Latinx communities in the United States and the American hemisphere.

Building from the Chancellor’s Signature Initiative on the Future of Democracy, the group is currently developing research in three focus areas of Citizenship and Migration, Democratic Speech Cultures, and Making Democracy Work, across various disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities. Methodologically we organize readings and data analysis, as well as approaches to lived experience, art, music, film, theatre, and other media of cultural and political expression.

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Our aim is to create a space to examine the problems and contradictions of democracy next to alternative forms of political engagement for a more just and equitable society. To do this, we support publications, discussions, and events in order to expand our collective capacity to critically rethink democracy within our university community and beyond.

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