The four-part series of presentations and discussions will be held on successive Tuesday evenings leading up to the 2016 presidential election. All talks begin at 6 p.m., and are free and open to the public. The evenings will feature brief presentations by two faculty speakers and a moderated discussion between those speakers and community participants.
“The series is designed to engage the Bloomington-Normal and campus community in a discussion of the most important and complex issues facing American voters with the guidance and assistance of Illinois State faculty who have expertise in the complexities of those subjects,” said organizer and Professor of Art Lea Cline.
The talks include:
October 11 — “The History of Voter Suppression in America” with Assistant Professor of Art Vanessa Schulman and Professor of History Amy Wood at the Center for Visual Arts, room 110, 401 S. School St., Normal. Schulman is a specialist in the visual culture of eighteenth and nineteenth century America. She is the author of Work Sights: The Visual Culture of Industry in Nineteenth-Century America, which explores how visual representations of labor, technology, and industry were crucial in shaping the way nineteenth-century Americans understood their nation and its place in the world. Wood focuses her research on American cultural history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the history of the U.S. South. She is the author of Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940, which examines visual representations of lynching and the construction of white supremacy in the Jim Crow era.
October 18—“The Role of the Courts” with Associate Professor of Politics and Government Meghan Leonard and Professor of Criminal Justice Michael Gizzi at the Center for Visual Arts, room 110. Leonard researches the decision-making behavior of elected and appointed state supreme court justices, with special focus on how these justices build coalitions during the opinion writing process, and how state legislatures affect the decisions state supreme courts make. Her work has appeared in State Politics and Policy Quarterly, American Politics Research, and the Justice System Journal. Gizzi is a specialist on constitutional law who focuses his research on the Fourth Amendment, Supreme Court decision-making, and criminal courts. He is the author of The Fourth Amendment in Flux: The Roberts Court, Crime Control, and Digital Privacy and The Web of Democracy: An Introduction to American Politics.
October 25—“Media and the Modern Candidate” with Assistant Professor of Politics and Government Kerri Milita and Assistant Professor of Communication Rebecca Hayes at the Center for Visual Arts, room 110. Milita studies American elections and public policy. Her research focuses on candidate rhetoric and the factors that explain candidates’ position-taking strategies on key issues of the day. Hayes’ research involves uses, effects, and processes of social media in political, brand, and relational contexts. Before academia, she worked in political and governmental public affairs, developing and maintaining traditional and social media relations in state and federal government.
November 1—“Modern Political Movements” with Professor of History Andrew Hartman and Professor of Politics and Government Lane Crothers at University Galleries, 11 Uptown Circle #103, Normal.
The evening will include the premiere performance of School of Music faculty Roy Magnuson’s composition, “it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” by Justin Vickers (tenor) and Geoffrey Duce (piano). A reception will follow.
Hartman is an American historian who focuses on intellectual history and political culture. He is the author of two books, Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School, and A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, and currently at work on a book about “Marx and America.” Hartman was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark for the 2013-14 academic year and is an OAH Distinguished Lecturer for the 2015-18 period.
Crothers is the author of six books, including Globalization and American Popular Culture, now in its third edition, and Rage on the Right: The American Militia Movement from Ruby Ridge to Homeland Security. From August 2015 to May 2016, he served as the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies in the Department of World Cultures at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. His work focuses on the ways the values, ideals, and social practices of American political culture shape U.S. policies both in the United States and overseas.
Geoffrey Duce is a pianist who has performed in Carnegie Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and London’s Wigmore Hall, and with orchestras that include the Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, the Chattanooga and Olympia Symphony Orchestras, and the Scottish Sinfonia. He has given masterclasses in Hawaii, Canada, the U.K., and the Middle East, and has recorded for BBC Radio 3. This summer he was a guest professor for six weeks at the University of Taipei, Taiwan, and in May of 2017 he will appear with Justin Vickers at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Magnuson has composed music for orchestra, wind ensemble, concert band, chamber ensembles, vocalists, electroacoustic ensembles, and films. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe at universities and venues such as the World Saxophone Congress, WASBE, NASA, CBDNA, SCI, and the Red Note New Music Festival.
Vickers is an American lyric tenor who specializes in twentieth-century British music and contemporary song and opera by American composers. His first book, Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art, is due May 2017 by The Boydell Press. Vickers performs regularly throughout the United States, England, Europe, and Asia, having sung at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center. He appears in recital at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in May 2017.
For additional information on “Super Tuesdays,” contact Cline at (309) 438-5621.
The talk is part of theIllinois State University Speaker Series. The series seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas, andcontinue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process. All talks are free and open to the public.
