2026 04/09 Padraic Kenney

Padraic Kenney

Flowers in the Frame: Nonviolent Revolution, 1974–2014

“Flowers in the Frame” is an outline of a book project on the emergence, flourishing, and decline of a non-violent revolutionary frame that grew to dominate global discourse about change for several decades. Beginning with the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, through democratic change in Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Eastern Europe, this era came to an abrupt end with the EuroMaidan Revolution in Ukraine, along with the violent repression of the Arab Spring in Egypt and the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong. During those forty years, non-violence was more than just a tactic employed by protesters, as had been the case throughout the twentieth century. In fact, non-violence became an accepted frame for regimes as well, as authoritarians responded and even acceded to non-violence. Since 2014, protests against authoritarian regimes have not subsided, but no longer does non-violence have the persuasive force it enjoyed in the previous era. To understand how this era emerged, how it was experienced, and why it ended, I focus on the street-level experience of revolutions and consider how repertoires of protest changed over this era. 

           Summary

Padraic Kenney, Professor of History, University of Kentucky, is a historian of social movements, revolution, and human rights in Poland, Eastern Europe, and globally. He is the author of six books, including Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945–1950 (Cornell University Press, 2012); A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe, 1989 (Princeton University Press, 2002); and Dance in Chains: Political Imprisonment in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2017). His work has been translated into eight languages. In 2025, he was honored with the Order of the Officer’s Cross for Service to the Republic of Poland. 

Co-sponsored by Hejna Family Chair in Polish Studies and UIC Department of History.

April 9, 2026 from 5-7:00 PM

Institute for the Humanities
BSB (Behavioral Sciences Building)
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