We started off our morning at the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), where we met with President & CEO Rebecca Bill Chavez and Program and Executive Assistant Juanita Caballero. IAD features seven core programs, including an Asia & Latin America Program that covers China, Japan, and Korea. Like many of the organizations we met with, the Trump administration’s gutting of USAID had massively affected the organization’s scope and programming. However, President Chavez emphasized that credibility plays a large role in sustaining their work and maintaining a critical yet objective lens. She pointed to IAD’s daily publication, Latin America Advisor, as an example of their continued work to contribute strong analysis to the international information environment. In response to student questions about the legacies of military dictatorships in Latin America, President Chavez also discussed security as a leading issue for voters and patterns across Pink Tide states.

~ Ariana Lee

For our post-lunch meeting, we headed to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). We met with Jean Schindler, Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Communications, and Adrian Shahbaz, Director, Digital Democracy. They discussed the organization’s role, the impact of funding cuts, and the dimensions of electoral integrity beyond simply holding elections. 

After IFES spoke about the massive funding cuts from USAID, I noticed that this was a recurring challenge across many of the think tanks and nonprofits we visited. Despite their critical role in protecting democratic institutions from authoritarianism, countless employees were laid off, funding was cut by 75%, and the number of country programs was significantly reduced. Their efforts to diversify funding sources helped cushion the impact of these cuts. This led me not only to understand the importance of funding and the relationships it enables, but also to question how governments could provide more consistent and sufficient funding for democracy-building and civil society development abroad.

Talking to Shahbaz made me realize how significant digital threats are to democracy. They can have significant consequences for democracy, as seen in Russia-backed interference in Sahelian and Nigerian elections, Romania’s Constitutional Court, and information manipulation in Moldova and Ethiopia. He discussed not only the role of AI and technology in foreign information manipulation and interference, but also how election commissions use them for cybersecurity and election delivery. In response to my question, he explained that IFES plays an important role by connecting and working with key actors across the electoral system and strengthening the enforcement of electoral laws.

“The belief of a free, fair election is as important as the actual elections,” a quote from Shahbaz that I find captures the essence of what the work on elections is really about. It made me understand that there are so many considerations beyond the ballot box for there to be a genuinely democratic election. Beyond the ballot box, institutions, political culture, public legitimacy, and foreign and domestic digital interference all shape the broader conditions that determine whether elections are meaningful. This convinced me to approach my research question at a deeper level, looking beyond the formal appearance of democracy to what makes it meaningful in practice.

I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn from IFES, which would not have been possible without the support of Professor Stedman, Stacey, and Shayla.

We wrapped up the day by heading to the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater to watch Step Afrika!’s The Fruits of Our Labor, a percussive, contemporary dance performance honoring America’s 250th anniversary. It was an eye-opening experience for me. Even without dialogue, the sound of the stepping was incredibly powerful. As the show moved through different stages of American history, it really made me feel the complicated layers of patriotism and identity. By the end of the show, the energy was so infectious that it made me want to try out step dancing myself sometime soon!

~ Grace Phatteeya Yongsanguanchai

I loved this performance. There was so much artistry to appreciate: the clever costuming, the body percussion, the various uses of American iconography, the framing of the show as its own kind of album, the integration of text from the Constitution and Langston Hughes, and, of course, the choreography itself. In the more intimate setting of a black box theater, the show served to remind the audience that America continues to be a work in progress in which we all participate.

~ Ariana Lee