Rutgers Democracy Lab: What will YOUR impact be?

The Rutgers Democracy Lab (RDL) represents a bold commitment to ensuring future generations have the knowledge and tools needed to be engaged, civic professionals. As an incubator, the Lab explores, experiments, and tests new ideas and potential solutions to real-world problems. Our work studies and puts into practice “what works” to build a more vibrant democracy.

Democracy is in crisis with a loss of trust, increasing polarization, and adaptive challenges, so a lab for democracy must place a heavy emphasis on interdisciplinary innovation and problem-solving. RDL invites students, faculty, and staff from across the university to partner with us to create civic opportunities ranging from interactive workshops to cutting-edge research. We offer an assortment of internship and fellowship programs to catalyze innovative ideas to strengthen civic life, guided by the notion that to learn democracy is to practice it. Each of our programs taps into the expertise and talent of all disciplines–from the arts to zoology (and everything in between!)–and diverse members of the Rutgers and local communities to advance creative solutions to democracy’s biggest challenges.

Our work has four focus areas:

• Public Spaces, Arts, and Civic Life: How can we re-imagine public spaces to promote civic life?

• Dialogue Across Difference: How can we create opportunities to explore contemporary issues from different perspectives and inspire people to talk across lines of difference?

• Technology and Democracy: How can digital media and emerging technologies shape our democracy in healthy ways? 

• Public Engagement: How can we partner with local communities to solve real-world challenges?