2023 Coverdell Visiting Scholar hosts symposium on democracy

Dr. George Kieh, Georgia College & State University’s 2023 Coverdell Visiting Scholar in the Department of Government & Sociology is hosting a symposium on “Democracy in the World” Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10-11, in the Pat Peterson Museum Education room in Ina Dillard Russell Library.

Friday’s symposium will be 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday’s event will be 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Kieh is on sabbatical from Texas Southern University in Houston, where he was dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs. He is an expert on foreign policy, conflicts, civil wars, global terrorism and genocide.

Kieh learned firsthand about autocracy and oppressions, while growing up in Liberia. He was imprisoned twice for organizing social-justice movements and protesting against his government.

For the symposium, Kieh invited 13 professors from Georgia College, University of West Georgia, North Carolina Central University and as far away as California to speak about the challenges facing democracy in the world today.

“In an autocracy, you got to go with the program,” Kieh said. “There’s no room for independent views. Eventually, authoritarian regimes consume their own supporters. If you challenge them, you do that at your own peril. You don’t have the right to think freely anymore. You don’t have the right to express alternative views. That’s only in a democratic system.”

To learn more about the symposium, please contact Kieh at George.Kieh@tsu.edu or call 478-445-5565 or 616-648-8901. And see the attached program of events.