Miguel von Fedak

Born in Venezuela and raised in Massachusetts, Miguel has had a global outlook from a young age. His love of political theory and the history of political thought roots itself in his passion for exploring the ways people justify their behavior and the kinds of societies which these justifications create. As a student in the Ethics, Politics, and Economics major, Miguel has carried out an extensive research project into deliberative democratic government in France. He spent the Spring and Summer of 2023 studying in Paris and attending sessions of the French Convention on the End of Life. While in Paris, he directly observed the convention sessions, interviewed convention participants, and discussed with research colleagues the ramifications of this form of democratic governance. His proximity to this deliberative democratic experiment taught him valuable lessons about how democracy as a concept necessitates deeper inquiry into the roles history, epistemology, and morality play in defining a society’s self-perception. Miguel seeks to continue to dive deeper into how European intellectual thought has lead to this moment of political innovation and why.