Democracy 2024

Images of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are still shocking. What had historically been a ceremonial procedure turned riotous and deadly. The peaceful transfer of power between administrations was a point of national pride taught in history books, but today it is mired in uncertainty. Robert Cassidy, assistant professor of the practice in government, gathered four scholars with different perspectives on what may happen this election cycle at a panel on Oct. 17. Logan Dancey, associate professor of government, offered insight into political developments and election reforms passed since the 2020 election. David Aaron ’95, visiting professor of…

What do Christian, Jewish, and Hindu Americans have in common? They all have someone representing their faith on the national political stage in the 2024 presidential campaign. That intersection of religion and politics was the focus of a talk, “The Fluidity of American Faith: Real Talk about Religion and the 2024 Presidential Race,” by investigative journalist and author Sarah Posner ’86 on Oct. 17 at the Frank Center for Public Affairs. In introducing Posner, Department of Religion Chair Andrew Quintman said, “religion informs our understanding of so many aspects of our human life and that's especially true of our current…

“What is Political About Art?” was the question posed at the Theater Department’s fall Talk It Out and Long Table conversation on October 10. The event was organized by Assistant Professor of Theater Katie Pearl, Associate Professor of Theater and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Katie Brewer Ball, and included the student cast of Of Government in the Theater Studios. Pearl will be directing four performances of Agnes Borinsky’s play Of Government in the CFA Theater Nov. 7 to Nov. 9. The work deals with the connected processes of making theater and making society. “Every time we do a play, we…

There are only three places in the United States where incarcerated individuals never lose their right to vote: the District of Columbia, Maine, and Vermont. Connecticut is one of 23 states where incarcerated people lose their right to vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 2021, the state passed a bill restoring the right to vote for most people on parole and probation. Two advocates for this bill’s passage—State Senator Gary Winfield and organizer James Jeter—joined reentry expert Tracie Bernardi Guzman in conversation about barriers to voting in Connecticut at Wesleyan’s Allbritton Center for the Study of…

On October 2, Saidiya Hartman ’83, Hon. ’19 joined Kaneza Schaal ’06 in a conversation about their collaborative process of creating the new performance work Litany for Grieving Sisters. Moderated by Kiara Benn ’20, the event was hosted by Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts and convened in the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism. Based on Hartman’s essay of the same name, which was originally published in the journal Representations in 2022, the work explores themes of collective grief, love, and resilience. The three Wesleyan alumnae discussed the evolution of the project as they collaborate in a democratic process…

Senior Julia Armeli '25 is one of a dozen undergraduate students using innovative technologies to make sense of the deluge of political ads targeting citizens at Delta Lab, the computational arm of the Wesleyan Media Project (WMP). This election season, Armeli, her student colleagues at Delta Lab — and another group of students at WMP known as human coders — will continue to apply their research and analytical skills to shed light on an increasingly diverse and polarized media messaging landscape. Delta Lab is a student-centered lab that draws on the skills and passion of students to analyze political ads…

United States Senator John Hickenlooper ’74, MA ’80, Hon. ’10 didn’t set out to become a politician when he graduated from Wesleyan half a century ago. He wanted to be a geologist, but when that didn’t pan out, he found success as an entrepreneur and brewery owner in Denver at the height of the craft brewing craze. When he ran for mayor of Denver at the age of 49, Hickenlooper never anticipated that national politics would play such a huge role in his second act. But after serving as mayor for two terms, he became governor of Colorado for another…

Journalists have always played a vital role in defending democracy, educating the public while holding those in power accountable for their actions. Few journalists have challenged Americans to reimagine who we are as a nation as much as Nikole Hannah-Jones. On April 25, the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life co-sponsored an event with Wesleyan’s Democracy 2024 initiative to host Hannah-Jones, a New York Times correspondent, Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning creator of the 1619 Project. Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Tracy Heather Strain sat down with Hannah-Jones to discuss…

The word “liberalism” is a tricky thing. As The New Yorker magazine staff writer Adam Gopnik discovered while promoting his 2019 book A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, its variants carry different political baggage from one Western country to the next. Its breadth renders it ideologically elusive, encompassing societies with social democracies, free markets, and shades of grey. Lately, its survival has come into question even in places where its future once seemed assured. But last Thursday in front of a near-capacity audience at the Frank Center for Public Affairs, Gopnik spoke passionately of liberalism’s origins, what…

Since the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, legal scholars, political pundits, professors of history, and others have debated whether the United States has taken a turn from democracy toward fascism. Some say it has. Others argue it has not. The very uncertainty about what has or has not happened gave rise to Assistant Professor of History Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins’ new book, “Did it Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America.” It’s an anthology of texts from thought leaders from certain periods in the 20th and 21st centuries who take positions on the state of fascism in America. Many of the…

From book bans to restrictions on teaching, in recent years, there have been clear infringements on First Amendment rights in the U.S. and the problem may be more widespread than people realize. There was, for example, a 33 percent increase in book bans in the 2022-23 school year from the 2021-22 school year, largely targeting books about race, racism, and gender issues or featuring on LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color. Meanwhile, more than 300 gag order bills have been introduced across 46 state legislatures restricting the discussion of gender and racial identities, censorship of teaching materials, and, in some…

Peaceful Transfer of Power? Scholars Discuss the Possibilities

Alumni Author Talk on Religion and the Presidential Race

Students, Faculty Explore Intersection of Art and Politics

Breaking Down ‘Barriers to the Ballot’

Democracy in Action: Three Alumnae Discuss Collaboration on New Performance Work

Student-Led Lab Shines Light on Political Advertising

Democracy 2024: Hickenlooper, Roth talk Political Optimism and Opportunity

No Democracy Without Slavery: A Revolutionary Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones

Democracy Demands Passionate Defense, Says Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker

Did It Happen Here?

Hugo Black Lecturers Establish What’s at Stake When Free Expression on Campus is Imperiled