Skidmore College offers 鈥榥ew ways of thinking about the election鈥�
Skidmore College is offering a series of talks, dialogues, exhibitions, videos, and other educational programming that deepen understanding of American politics, society, and the democratic process ahead of the U.S. presidential elections in November.
Susan McWilliams Barndt, professor of politics at Pomona College, opened the fall election programming with the College鈥檚 annual Constitution Day Lecture, 鈥淎 Tale of Two Liberalisms: Desegregating American Political Thought,鈥� on Monday, Sept. 9.
The lecture is one of numerous panels, discussions, and creative events organized in conjunction with the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery鈥檚 鈥溾�� exhibition and gathering space 鈥� part of Skidmore's broader election programming this fall.
The Tang's 鈥淓stablish, Insure, Provide, Promote: Election 2024鈥� includes a Palm Beach County, Florida, voting machine with sample ballots and instructions from the contentious 2000 U.S. presidential election featuring Al Gore and George W. Bush.
McWilliams opened by stressing that her lecture was less about political punditry and more about exploring 鈥渦ndercurrents of American politics鈥� that she hoped would offer 鈥渘ew ways of thinking about the election.鈥� It鈥檚 a theme that characterizes many Skidmore election-related programs this fall. Topics touch on issues as complex and diverse as race, the environment, extremism, entrepreneurship, global politics, gender, gun violence, and fundamentalism in politics, religion, and art.
Highlights from campus programming this fall include:
- Sept. 18: The Environmental Studies and Sciences Department鈥檚 Keynote Lecture with Maggie Thomas, special assistant to President Joe Biden for climate
- Sept. 27-29: Salmagundi Magazine鈥檚 60th Anniversary conference, 鈥淎re we all fundamentalists?鈥�
- Oct. 9: "Left, Right, and Center: American Political Parties and the Electorate" featuring professors Ron Seyb and Natalie Taylor with authors Ruy Teixeira and Matthew Continetti
- Oct. 10: The Annual Arthur Zankel Lecture with Erik Baker (Harvard University), 鈥淓ntrepreneurship versus Democracy: American Business Culture and the Road to Trump鈥�
- Oct. 15: 鈥淥n Election Security and AI鈥� featuring Darrell West (Brookings Institution) and Gaston Wright (Civic House)
- Oct. 16: "'Two Dads Defending Democracy" featuring gun safety advocate Fred Guttenberg '88 and former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh
- Oct. 21: 鈥淕lobal Election Fever: What we have learned from recent elections around the world鈥� with professors Lucas Parello, Christopher Whann, Mahesh Shankar, Murat Yildiz, and Pushkala Prasad
- Oct. 23: "All the Way With the ERA? The Struggle for an Equal Rights Amendment at Skidmore and Beyond" with professors Katherine Graney and Jennifer Delton
Associate Professor Political Science Ron Seyb, who is retiring this academic year, is also offering a 鈥淟ast Class鈥� video series filled with his characteristic humor and insight into important issues heading into the election. The significance of the and the role of in the race are the first two topics in the series.
Students listen to Susan McWilliams Barndt's Constitution Day Lecture.
At the Constitution Day Lecture, McWilliams challenged the notion of a monolithic liberal tradition that grew exclusively out of the Enlightenment tradition in Western intellectual thought. Her talk was laced with references that ranged from Benjamin Franklin and Phillis Wheatley to Martin Luther King and Octavia Butler.
鈥淲e would do better to understand American liberalism as born of intellectual hybridity, not realized in the triumph of a singular, liberal tradition, but rather realized in the messy interplay between multiple liberal traditions,鈥� McWilliams said. 鈥淥ne of those traditions indeed is Enlightenment individualist liberalism. But there is another American liberal tradition ... an Exodus liberal tradition that is rooted in the Exodus story and is expressed primarily, though not exclusively, in African American political thought.鈥�
On Thursday, Sept. 12, Eddie Glaude, James S. McDonnell Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of "Democracy in Black: How Race still Enslaves the American Soul," continued the election conversation on campus with his talk 鈥淭he State of American Politics.鈥�
Over the summer, the College also held a panel discussion as part of the New York State Summer Writers Institute that previewed Skidmore鈥檚 rich offerings this fall.
The Tang Teaching Museum recently put "Ernest and Ruth," a sculpture by artist Hank Willis Thomas, on display on the Tang lawn in conjunction with "Establish, Insure, Provide, Promote: Election 2024." In the shape of a classic comic book speech bubble, the sculpture is a bench: an invitation to sit and converse with one another, to share, and to listen.
President Marc Conner, a founding member of has made free speech a hallmark of his presidency and emphasized its centrality to the Skidmore election programming.
Said Conner: "Freedom of expression, academic freedom, respect for difference, and tolerance 鈥� even when we most powerfully disagree 鈥� these are fundamental to what we do and who we are at Skidmore College.鈥�
