Former Fellow

Simone Chambers

© Simone Chambers

Duration of stay: April 8 – June 18 2025

In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst

Funded by University of California Irvine and Research Center Normative Orders

Simone Chambers is Professor of Political Science at the University of California Irvine. She has written and published on such topics as deliberative democracy, referendums, constitutional politics, the public sphere, secularism, rhetoric, civility, digital misinformation and the work of Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls. Her most recent book, Contemporary Democratic Theory appeared with Polity Press in 2024.

Research project: Deliberation and the future of democracy: A realistic but not realist political theory

My research falls within the discipline of political philosophy. I am writing a book that seeks to argue that deliberative democracy offers a compelling diagnosis of what ails democracy today. Often accused of being ideal, unable to address power differentials, and unrealistic, this project aims to show that deliberative democracy is none of those things I pay particular attention to the rise and popularity of realist theories of democracy and argue that they fail to offer a compelling account of democracy.


Events

4/25 Kings College London: Public lecture

4/28 Oxford University: Public lecture

4/29 University Pompeu Fabra Barcelona: Colloquium presentation

5/22 University of Vienna: Public lecture

5/28 Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz: Public lecture

6/2 Frei University of Berlin: Colloquium presentation

6/3 Goethe University of Frankfurt: Public lecture “Is there a future for deliberative democracy? Democratic theory in the age of oligarchs, autocrats, and patriarchs”

6/12 University of Hamburg: Workshop presentation, 2025, 6:15 p.m.

  • Publikationen

    Simone Chambers. 2025. “Illusive Methodology. What is Normative Political Theory?” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. Simone Chambers. 2025. “Populism, Popular Sovereignty, and Popular Rule. Democratic Theory 11 (2): 18-31 Simone Chambers. 2024. Contemporary Democratic Theory .Polity Press Simone Chambers. 2024. “The Counter-Majoritarian Referendum: Popular Voting Processes and Constitutional Change.” Critical Review 36 (3): 338-351

News from the research center

Event
17.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Agency Under Oppression: Feminist Perspectives

Conference

International Conference on agency, heternonmy and the current opression of feminist perspectives. Among others with Manon Garcia, Serene Khader, Regina Schidel and Francesca Cesarano.

more information ›
Event
02.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Forensic Truth Regimes

Movie, Panel Discussion

The event explores how documentary film and aesthetic investigations can reopen unresolved questions of justice and accountability by revisiting the 1992 killing of two Romanian Roma men at the German-Polish border and examining the counter-forensic potential of visual media to critique legal violence and truth regimes. It is part of the series “Visual Truth Regimes,” organized by Laliv Melamed (Goethe University Frankfurt, TFM), Felix Trautmann (HBK Braunschweig / Institute for Social Research), and Franziska Wildt (Institute for Social Research).

more information ›
Event
22.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Rechtsextremismus und Polizei - Erscheinungsformen, Umgangsweisen, Perspektiven

Panel Discussion

Die Diskussion knüpft an den Sammelband „Rechtsextremismus als Herausforderung für Polizei und Gesellschaft“ an, der aktuelle Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Praxis und Zivilgesellschaft zusammenführt.

more information ›
News
18.05.2026

Videopodcast-Reihe „Our Planet, Our Health“ gestartet

Mit „Our Planet, Our Health“ startet eine neue Videopodcast-Reihe zu Fragen globaler Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit. Die Reihe, gehostet von Dr. Romina Rekers, ist eine Initiative des Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme (GHJ), gefördert von der Höppschen Stiftung.

more information ›
Publication
12.05.2026 | Online article

Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism

This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.

more information ›
Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

more information ›
Publication
22.04.2026 | Chapter

Körpergeschlecht und Selbstbestimmung

Britz, Gabriele (2026): "Körpergeschlecht und Selbstbestimmung". In. Mangold, Anna Katharina; Völzmann, Berit (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit als Thema der Rechtswissenschaft, Nomos, S. 41-48.

more information ›
Publication
22.04.2026 | Chapter

Festrede zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ute Sacksofsky, M.P.A. (Harvard), 4. April 2025

Schmidt, Rebecca Caroline; Forst, Rainer; Günther, Klaus (2026): "Festrede zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ute Sacksofsky, M.P.A. (Harvard), 4. April 2025". In: Mangold, Anna Katharina; Völzmann, Berit (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit als Thema der Rechtswissenschaft, Nomos, S. 13-18.

more information ›