The making of the modern world was in part constituted by the historical injustices of colonialism and racial slavery.  These injustices have played out in contemporary phenomena such as apartheid, displacement, discrimination, and other forms of domination in which substantial portions of the human population have been deprived of rights, economic opportunity, social mobility, or even their very lives.  All these forms of historical and contemporary wrongs have generated a plethora of scholarship around different forms of justice: reparative, redistributive, transitional and, of course, reparations.  However, how do forms of historical and contemporary injustices shape practices of democracy?  Are forms of democracy adequate responses to historical and contemporary forms of injustice? This research cluster is a joint collaborative project between the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs and the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.  In AY21, a two year postdoctoral fellow will anchor this project.