Democratic Crises and Structural Change<\/a>,\u201d as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for the Humanities\u2019 yearlong lecture series, \u201cSustaining Democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHis talk, which starts at 3 p.m. in the Carothers Library\u2019s Galanti Lounge, will address the reforms needed to reinvigorate and sustain democracy in the U.S. The event will be in person and livestreamed. Registration is recommended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled about having Alex Keyssar come to campus just two weeks before the November election,\u201d said Evelyn Sterne, director of the humanities center. \u201cHis work as a historian has deep implications for understanding contemporary policy and politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keyssar, the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard University\u2019s Kennedy School of Government, is the author of the award-winning \u201cThe Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States\u201d (2000), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book, which was updated in a 2009 edition, challenges the notion that the history of voting rights is a simple progression of an increase in access to voting. In reality, over the course of our history, the right to vote has been deeply contested for many segments of the population \u2013 women, Black Americans, and white male workers and immigrants, among many others. In Rhode Island, for example, immigrants had to own land in order to vote until 1888.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his most recent work, \u201cWhy Do We Still Have the Electoral College,\u201d Keyssar attempts to make sense of why an arcane American institution has endured despite multiple efforts to reform or abolish it. The book \u201cconclusively demonstrates the absurdity of preserving an institution that has been so contentious throughout U.S. history and has not infrequently produced results that defied the popular will,\u201d one reviewer wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKeyssar\u2019s talk will fit perfectly into our yearlong series, which is bringing speakers to analyze how the arts and humanities can help to inspire democratic engagement,\u201d said Sterne. \u201cIt also should be of great interest to students, faculty, staff and community members attending this fall\u2019s Honors Colloquium series, \u2018Democracy in Peril.\u2019 Presented by a renowned historian with expertise in the nation’s core political institutions, it will be an incredibly timely analysis on the eve of the election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with being a celebrated historian, Keyssar chaired the Social Science Research Council\u2019s National Research Commission on Voting and Elections. He is also the author of the award-winning \u201cOut of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts\u201d and coauthor of \u201cThe Way of the Ship: America\u2019s Maritime History Reenvisioned, 1600-2000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with the Center for the Humanities, \u201cSustaining Democracy\u201d is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English, Department of Gender and Women\u2019s Studies, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Division of Research and Economic Development, 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Honors Program, Multicultural Student Services Center, Office of Community, Equity and Diversity, and Office of the President.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 16, 2024 \u2013 With many U.S. citizens already casting their votes for the November election, there may not be a better time for a talk about the historic battles for voting rights, struggles over the Electoral College, and what is needed to sustain democracy in the U.S. Historian Alex Keyssar, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":98350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98349,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98348\/revisions\/98349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}