News release details
Everyone has a breaking point. For former Yale University Professor Marci Shore, that moment came last year when she left the United States, citing concerns over the country’s “descent into fascism.”
On Thursday April 16, Shore will draw on her expertise in the politics of twentieth and twenty‐first century Central and Eastern Europe, including her award‐winning writing on Ukraine’s democratic revolution. She will discuss the dangers posed by the world’s authoritarian turn at the inaugural lecture of Democracy in Peril, a speaker series developed by the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics in partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR). The series will bring a number of the world’s leading thinkers on authoritarianism to Winnipeg where they will each give a free public lecture at the Museum.
“We’re like people on the Titanic saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink. We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship. We’ve got the biggest ship.’ And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink,” said Professor Shore to the New York Times last year.
The free public lecture has been developed at a time when democracy is facing unprecedented challenges worldwide, with authoritarian leaders gaining influence. The lecture will be followed by a discussion with Neil McArthur, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for a deep understanding of what is happening — and to find hope for a way forward.
Shore holds a PhD from Stanford University and is the Chair in European Intellectual History at the Munk School at the University of Toronto. She is a prominent historian, author and public intellectual, who was previously a professor at Yale University. She is the author of several books, including The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution. She writes for major publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New York Times.
What:
Democracy in Peril: Thoughts from a post‐truth world with Marci Shore
When:
Thursday, April 16 – 7 p.m.
Where:
Bonnie & John Buhler Hall, Level 1, Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Cost:
Free with registration
The second lecture in the Democracy in Peril speaker series
The second lecture in the Democracy in Peril speaker series features Jason Stanley on preserving Canadian democracy on April 29, 2026.