This year, the Karsh Institute is bringing together some of the sharpest public voices in American law, economic policy, journalism, and politics as Distinguished Practitioner Fellows.
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, American Compass founder and chief economist Oren Cass, the American Enterprise Institute’s Yuval Levin, and legal commentator and public scholar Melissa Murray are working with the Karsh Institute to unpack what holds American democracy together. During their year-long fellowships, they will participate in public events; organize convenings of scholars, practitioners, and other thought leaders; and produce white papers and other work aimed at strengthening American civic life.
“The main benefit of this fellowship is simply that I can think in bigger-picture terms than I'm able to with a weekly New York Times column,” said Bouie. It’s a sentiment that captures the concept behind the fellowship’s design: to complement and build upon the work practitioners are already doing, giving them the time and space to think deeply about today’s most important issues.
The fellowship is designed to complement and build upon the work practitioners are already doing, giving them the time and space to think deeply about today’s most important issues.
Each fellow has an independent project, but they share a common focus on what it takes to revitalize self-government and civic life. Alongside other experts, scholars, students, and Karsh Institute Faculty Fellows, they will offer the UVA community and the wider public a multidimensional look at the challenges facing American democracy and the ideas, perspectives, and approaches that can help us understand and address them.
Jamelle Bouie: Reforming the Courts and the Electoral System
Distinguished Practitioner Fellow (July 1, 2026–July 1, 2027)
“I’ve always been interested in the Supreme Court as an institution, as well as in the structures of American democracy,” Bouie said. “These are topics I’ve covered in my work as a columnist for some time. Now feels like the moment to ask questions, because those structures and institutions have had a huge impact on where we find ourselves today in American history.”
As part of his fellowship, Bouie will host working sessions in Charlottesville in spring 2027, collaborating with other practitioners, UVA faculty, and students. Together, they will wrestle with the central questions shaping judicial and electoral reform today and explore how the judiciary is evolving in this ever-changing political landscape.
“Success for me in this fellowship will be people engaging in fruitful conversations about what can be done to reform American democracy,” Bouie said.
Oren Cass: Economic Participation as a Prerequisite for Democracy
Distinguished Practitioner Fellow (July 1, 2026–July 1, 2027)
“Economic security and democratic participation are inextricably linked,” Cass said. “We make a mistake when we understand ‘democracy’ as just a formal construct that entails elections and courts. What we want is a flourishing republic whose citizens have a shared stake in a future that they can help shape through full participation in communal, economic, and national life.”
Cass will expand his Cost of Thriving Index (COTI), a measure of household economic security that he developed through his work at American Compass, to evaluate other facts of citizenship in America. His central argument is that economic security and democratic participation cannot be separated from each other.
That framework challenges the traditional split between objective economic indicators, like income or employment, and the more subjective sense of agency and belonging that shapes whether people feel invested in democratic life.
“We declare ‘objective’ the things we have invested in measuring, while diminishing as ‘subjective’ the things we have ignored,” he said. “COTI is an example of making objective the lost sense of middle-class security that income is intended to capture but does only partially. If we want to understand democratic health, we need to focus much less on what economists found it easiest to measure a century ago and much more on the social and economic prerequisites of a healthy democracy.”
Yuval Levin: Rebuilding Trust in American Institutions
Distinguished Practitioner Fellow (January 1, 2027–January 1, 2028)
“If the next phase of our politics gives us some opportunities to reinforce and strengthen American constitutionalism, what ought to be focal points for reformers now?” said Levin, who is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He has spent much of his career studying why Americans have lost faith in institutions and what it would take to rebuild that trust. He will be continuing—and expanding—that work as part of his fellowship.
As founding editor of National Affairs and the author of several books on American political life, Levin has argued that a purposeful recommitment to the country’s institutions, from Congress to local communities, is essential to reviving a shared sense of national purpose.
In his work with the Karsh Institute, Levin will explore the evolution of the American political system, focusing on the future of the American party system, of Congress, and of the presidency.
Melissa Murray: Everyday Life, Democratic Institutions, and the Rule of Law
Distinguished Practitioner Fellow (January 1, 2027–January 1, 2028)
“The Karsh Institute fellowship will provide an opportunity to move across multiple domains and speak to many different audiences within the confines of a single institution,” said Murray, who hosts the “Strict Scrutiny” podcast and brings a vantage point shaped by her work in the media, in the courtroom, and in the classroom.
“Whether on cable TV or a podcast, I’m trying to boil down intricate concepts to their most essential aspects,” said Murray, who is NYU School of Law’s Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law. “At this moment, it’s incredibly important to be talking about the rule of law, constitutionalism, and democracy in ways that reach as many audiences as possible.”
At NYU, Murray researches how courts and legal institutions regulate the most intimate aspects of everyday life, and what that regulation reveals about the health and direction of American democracy more broadly.
“I hope to be a bridge for sharing this work in other domains,” said Murray. “Most importantly, I’m hoping to spend my time engaging with other Karsh Institute fellows. I’m eager for the exchange of ideas and the opportunity to change minds, including my own.”