Richmond Professor awarded a visiting scholar grant by the University of Southern Indiana

Dr Rafal Soborski, Professor of International Politics at Richmond, is the winner of Research Travel Grant funded by the University of Southern Indiana to conduct research at the Communal Studies Collection at USI’s David L. Rice Library (https://www.usi.edu/liberal-arts/communal-center/).

The Communal Studies Collection’s rich archival materials hold information on over 600 historic and contemporary communal societies, utopias and intentional communities.

Rafal’s project is titled “Patterns of Prefiguration and Consensus Decision Making in Communal Politics” and will examine interpretations of and justifications for practices of consensus decision-making in communal life.

Rafal hopes to be able to spend next summer in Evansville, where the University of Southern Indiana is located, not far from the site of one of the most famous utopian communities, New Harmony, associated with the utopian socialist Robert Owen.