32nd Annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium: “Latine Voters and Their Role in Shaping the 2024 Presidential Election”

November 2, 2024 at 11:00 a.m.
Memorial Chapel

This timely conversation will explore key issues such as voter turnout patterns, the impact of economic and social issues on the Latine electorate, and the influence of Spanish-language and social media on political engagement.

Now entering its 32nd year, the Dwight L. Greene Symposium honors Dwight L. Greene '70 as a memorial and tribute to his life and work as a professor of law, mentor and friend. Each year, presenters are selected from among Wesleyan's alumni, faculty, and friends who have distinguished themselves in their professions, to share on topics of importance for Black alumni, alumni of color, and the Wesleyan community at large.

This event is part of Homecoming + Family Weekend.

WESeminar: Tracking Political Advertising: Behind the Scenes with the Wesleyan Media Project

November 2, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, Room 001

In its 14th year of real-time analysis of election ads, the Wesleyan Media Project is navigating a much more complex media environment than it did a decade ago. Join us to hear about the work we’ve been doing in 2024, our latest tools and innovations and how our student researchers make it all possible. Presenters include: Breeze Floyd, Program Manager, Wesleyan Media Project; Julia Armeli ‘25; Saul Ferholt-Kahn ‘27; Nat Welsh ‘25; and Kelleigh Entrekin ‘25.

This event is part of Homecoming + Family Weekend.

Election Day Viewing Party

November 5, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs; Forum, 100, and 101

Join the Government department from 8:00 – 11:30 p.m. Snacks and BINGO cards will be provided.

'Of Government'

November 7–9, 2024
CFA Theater

Of Government (2017) by Agnes Borinsky is a wild, unpredictable, hopeful play about theater and making society. The work holds space for contemplation of civic duty and possibility as forms of community and care. Guided by a host of oddball characters–including Barb the Teacher, Deb the Seeker, Heidi the Helper, and Tawny the Addict–this musical pageant set in small-town Montana features a pastiche of scenes that border on the absurd, all driving towards the question “What is government?” One answer can be found in the framing of the show, which is a community gathering as much as it is a play: government is about us figuring out how we’re all going to be together. Light refreshments will be provided.

The Wesleyan Theater Department production will be directed by Katie Pearl, Assistant Professor of Theater.

WESeminar: Democracy 2024

May 25, 2024, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Goldsmith Family Cinema 

Join President Michael S. Roth ’78 and United States Senator John Hickenlooper ’74, MA’80, Hon’10 for a conversation on Democracy 2024 initiatives

Revolutionary: A Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones

April 25, 2024, 5:30 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, Forum

In these turbulent times, journalism, like democracy itself, feels more revolutionary than ever as the boundary between journalism and activism blurs.

Please join us for a conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, about journalism, social justice, and the praise and backlash that reporting provokes. Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius grant, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards and the National Magazine Award three times.

Joining her in this conversation are Tracy Heather Strain, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, and Robyn Autry, associate professor of sociology and director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. Provost and Senior Vice President Nicole Stanton will provide introductions.

This event is sponsored by the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life with support from the Wintman Family.

Will there be Legal Accountability for Donald Trump? A Conversation with Journalist Andrea Bernstein

Wednesday, April 17 at 12:15 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, Room 101 

Fresh from the courtrooms where Donald Trump has been on trial in New York City, journalist, author, and podcast host Andrea Bernstein will give an insider's perspective on how the legal actions against the once and would-be president are playing out, with their profound implications for democracy. Bernstein will give a behind-the-scenes account of her year-long investigation on the secret machinations that led to the current six-three conservative majority on the U.S.

Lunch provided.

Sponsored by Wesleyan's Government Department and the College of Social Studies

Jesuit Refugee Service Advocacy Day

Tuesday, April 16, 2024 

Meet Senator Murphy from 12:30 - 1:00 PM
Meet Senator Blumenthal from 3:00 - 3:30 PM 

Come virtually meet Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal to discuss advocacy issues regarding refugees and asylum seekers. 

Adam Gopnik: To Fix Democracy, Figure Out What’s Broken

Thursday, April 11, 2024, 4:30 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, Room 100

Join celebrated writer Adam Gopnik, best known for his essays in The New Yorker, for an impassioned talk on the need to protect democracy at such a fractious time in American political history.

“When democratic practices are in power, they look boringly normal; it’s startling to realize how fragile they really are, and how hard they are to recover when they’re gone. Cicero blithely believed that the institutions of the Roman Republic were so strong and long-standing that friends and colleagues like Octavian and Mark Antony couldn’t really be capable of ending them. They were. The successful defense of democracy at times demands a price so high that we tend to have amnesia about it afterward.” —Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker

Did it Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America

Thursday, April 4, 2024, 4:30 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, Room 100 (new location)

Since the election of Donald Trump, politicians, historians, intellectuals, and media pundits have been faced with a startling and urgent question: are we threatened by fascism? Hear leading experts and scholars debate this urgent question when they come together at Wesleyan University for “Did it Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America.”

Speakers will include:

• Udi Greenberg, Dartmouth University
• Samuel Moyn, Yale University
• Gavriel Rosenfeld, Fairfield University
• Tamsin Shaw, New York University
• Jason Stanley, Yale University
• Moira Weigel, Northeastern University

Also participating are Wesleyan faculty including Sonali Chakravarti, Ethan Kleinberg, Sean McCann, Michael S. Roth, Peter Rutland, and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins.

Connecticut General Assembly Internship Career Trek

Wednesday, April 3, 2024, 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Students are invited to travel to the Connecticut General Assembly for an introduction to the legislative process and Q&A in the Hearing Room, a one-hour guided tour of the Capitol Building, lunch, and two hours of shadowing current interns.

The CGA Legislative Internship is an unpaid, for-credit internship working in the Connecticut state legislature. Interns work directly with legislators and caucus staff. Duties may include bill analysis and tracking; research; writing testimonies, social media or photography and video; liaison work and constituent casework. Interns gain behind-the-scenes insight into the legislator’s roles, politics and the policy-making process. CGA recruits sophomores and juniors in the fall for the spring internship.

Open to all class years and majors. First years and sophomores will receive priority in the selection process.

Hugo L. Black Lecture

Free Speech for Me, But Not for Thee: Campus Censorship from the 'Stop Woke Act' to Israel-Palestine

Monday, March 25, 2024, 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs 100 and a Zoom Webinar

Hear from Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder from Carleton College. Presented by The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and moderated by Dean Mary-Jane Rubenstein.

Reception following the event at 6:30 pm, EST

Democracy in Action Convening

Across two days of thought leadership and engaging activities, participants will hear from a collection of scholars, community leaders, experts, and peers. Following a Friday afternoon filled with student-centered engagement opportunities, the convening opens to all with a keynote address by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson that evening. Saturday will be filled with sessions featuring faculty, students, and experts exploring topics that lie at the intersection of higher education and democratic life: the power of the media, civic education, and the arts as a form of activism. The convening will close with a galvanizing session with Anand Giridharadas that will make it clear how institutions of higher education must commit to defending our democracy.

Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life Open House

September 10, 2024, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Allbritton Hall

At the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, our mission is to cultivate a dynamic community committed to the exploration, understanding, and advancement of public life. We embrace civic engagement as a core value, inspiring individuals to become active participants in shaping their communities and the world to large. Join us for the Allbritton Center Open House to learn about civic engagement opportunities for students, staff, faculty, and community. Meet and greet from 11am-2pm with student presentations and lunch from 12-1pm in Allbritton 311.

Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, and Us: The Politics of Forgiveness

September 10, 2024, 12:00 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, 100

The trauma of presidents is the trauma of nations. Can we heal? Historian Daniel Silliman, author of a new book on the spiritual struggles at the core of Richard Nixon’s life, argues that this fascinating story offers a way forward in healing the strife of our current political moment.

Presidential Debate Watch Party with Pre-Debate Discussion

September 10, 2024, 8:30 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, Forum

Government professors Logan Dancey and Justin Peck will host a pre-debate discussion followed by a debate watch party. All are welcome.

This event is sponsored by The Public Affairs Center, The Government Department, and the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.

Why Should Americans and Europeans Care About Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine?

September 25, 2024, 4:30 p.m.
Fisk Hall, Room 208

Mark Temnycky, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and a freelance journalist, will discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, its impact across Europe, and the implications of the upcoming U.S. presidential election for American policy toward Ukraine.

Sponsored by Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Department

Vice Presidential Debate Watch Party

October 1, 2024, 9:00 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, 100 and 101

All are welcome.

This event is sponsored by The Public Affairs Center, The Government Department, and the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.

Juliet Hooker (Brown University) — Reckoning with Democratic Debts: What Do We Owe the Grieving?

October 7, 2024, 6:00 p.m.
Daniel Family Commons

US democracy has moved closer to achieving its vaunted yet always unmet promises thanks to the crucial role of social justice activists who have forced it to reckon with its deficits thanks to their testimonies about its embodied costs. Fugitive Black people who became abolitionists, civil rights protesters; survivors of sexual violence, gun violence, and police violence; women denied reproductive care and their families (among many other examples) have become exemplary activists and staged catalyzing moments of genuine democratic renewal. But there are costs to transforming ongoing loss into civic excellence, to performing the work of democratic care. These democratic debts point to a different kind of reckoning: what do we owe those who turn their grief into activism? How can we distribute the civic burdens of democratic labor more equitably?

Sponsored by Center for the Humanities

Barriers to the Ballot

October 8, 2024, 12:00 p.m.
Allbritton, 311

Co-sponsored by the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and the Center for Prison Education, Barriers to the Ballot brings together leaders working to bring down barriers to voter registration and ballot access in Connecticut. State Senator Gary Winfield will provide insight into the legislative debates surrounding access to the ballot and the need for a holistic approach to systemic reform. Organizer James Jeter will share about the successful grassroots campaign for the 2021 restoration of voting rights for people on parole in CT: part of the national movement to undo the disenfranchisement laws that exclude millions of Americans from participating in our democracy. CT Hall of Change–recognized advocate Tracie Bernardi Guzman will illuminate further challenges to political participation for those navigating the precarity of reentry, drawing on her experience as a caseworker and a champion of reform.

CPE Fellow Caelan Desmond '24 will moderate, and pizza will be served!

Long Table: What is Political about Art?

October 10, 2024, 6:00 p.m.
TST001 (basement studio in theater building)

Conceived by the artist Lois Weaver, the Long Table experiments with participation and public engagement by reappropriating the dinner table atmosphere as a public forum, and encouraging informal conversations on serious topics. We discuss what’s on the menu. Literally, it is a very long table set up with chairs and refreshments where anyone and everyone is welcomed to come to the table, ask questions, make statements, leave comments on the paper tablecloth, or simply sit, watch, and listen–all around what’s on the menu: in this case, the prompt "What is Political About Art?" Your hosts: Professors Katie Pearl and Katie Brewer-Ball (THEA) with the Of Government acting ensemble. Sparking the conversation: Zora Duncan (FGSS), Sadia Shephard (Film), Amy Grillo (Allbritton Center for Public Life), Marcela Oteíza (THEA), and YOU.

Democratic Justice: Juries and Democracy in Ancient Greece and Contemporary America

October 14, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.
Downey House, 113

The ancient Greeks are often credited with the invention of democracy, a political system that – at least until recently – many modern states have striven to attain. What is seldom acknowledged, however, is that at the same time as the Greeks created the world’s first democracy, they also invented trial by jury of peers. Since the ancient Greek jury bears little resemblance to the modern one, however, the essential similarity of the two in terms of providing a democratic voice in decisions of justice often goes unnoticed. This lecture will explore the close relationship between democracy and the jury trial in ancient Greece and will argue that juries are essential to democracies in two ways. First, juries are vital for the realization of the equal protection of the law for all citizens. Secondly, juries are a key forum for the active engagement of citizens in democratic decision-making. I will suggest that these points have bearing on current debates about criminal justice and democratic engagement in America today.

Election 2024 Panel: Prospects for a Peaceful Transfer of Power

October 17, 2024 at 11:50 a.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, 100

Each semester the Government Majors Committee chooses a topic for faculty members to provide insight on the topic from a scholarly perspective. This panel will address the outlook for the candidates, election integrity, election security, and the potential for foreign interference and domestic extremist violence. Panelists will discuss how these factors weigh on the prospects for a peaceful transfer of power. This panel will be comprised of three to four scholars with knowledge and experience on election integrity, security, and countermeasures.

The Fluidity of American Faith: Real Talk About Religion and the 2024 Presidential Race

October 17, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.
Frank Center for Public Affairs, 001

With Sarah Posner, MSNBC columnist and author of two books on the Christian right, Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind (2020), and God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (2008).

Both major party tickets feature historic firsts: a Black and Asian American woman raised with Christian and Hindu influences, a Jewish spouse, a Catholic convert, a Hindu spouse, and a three-time nominee who presents himself as a quasi-religious figure who has transformed American evangelicalism. In this tectonic election, democracy is on the ballot–and along with it, the religious pluralism at the heart of the American experiment.

Anna Deavere Smith's 'This Ghost of Slavery'

October 27, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
Crowell Concert Hall

With her newest play, This Ghost of Slavery, Anna Deavere Smith combines her signature interview-based documentary theater with research into the archives of American slavery. Exploring the deep roots of historical trauma as it persists in the present, the play also considers how performance might provide new ways of understanding the collective stories we tell ourselves as individuals and as a nation.

Performed by a cast that includes professional actors and undergraduate artists at Wesleyan University, this staged reading will be followed by a discussion. This event marks the first in a series of engagements that Smith, the 2024–2025 CFA Artist in Residence, is devising with the Center for the Arts to further examine performance as a way of knowing.