CT General Assembly Legislative Internship Info Session - come learn more about the internship experience and academic credit options

Dr. Keith E. Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at
Princeton University AND author of the forthcoming book, Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (Princeton University Press, 2018)

Universities have a distinctive and important mission in American society. They assemble and nurture an open and diverse community of scholars, teachers and students dedicated to the production and dissemination of knowledge. The robust protection of free speech and civil discourse is essential to that mission. Better understanding the relationship between the critical functions of the university and the principles of free speech can help guide us in resolving the difficult challenges that confront the members of modern universities such as UConn.

Few U.S. government programs that aid democracy abroad today seek to foster regime change. Technical programs that do not confront dictators are more common than the aid to dissidents and political parties that once dominated the field. What explains this “taming” of democracy assistance? Has democracy promotion in the Middle East been effective? Has the presidency of Donald Trump changed U.S. foreign policy related to democracy and human rights? This talk will cover these themes, drawing especially on Dr. Bush’s research in Jordan and Tunisia.

The Middle East and North Africa has historically had the lowest political representation of women in the world, though the number of women officeholders is growing. Will having more women in politics lead women citizens to become more engaged? Or, could it depress overall levels of citizen engagement due to pervasive gender biases? To answer those questions, this paper uses a nationally-representative experiment in Tunisia. It finds that people are significantly less likely to want to contact their representatives when primed to think of a mixed-gender group of officeholders compared to women officeholders. Moreover, this pattern does not vary according to respondents' gender. Further analyses reveal that the effect is concentrated among Islamists, which is consistent with some Islamists’ opposition to gender mixing in public. This finding encourages future work examining women's political presence in socially- conservative environments where gender segregation is common.

POLS Colloquium:

Peter Loge (George Washington University): "A Call to Return to the Study and Teaching of Political Communication Ethics"

Oak 408, 12:30-1:45pm

Post-Election Recap: What Does it All Mean and What Will Happen Next?

A post-election panel with Political Science Professors.

12:15pm in Konover Auditorium.

POLS Colloquium:

Prof. David Richards (UConn POLS and HRI) presents:

"Exploring the Normative Gap in the Legal Protection of Women from Violence"

12:30pm in Oak 438

University-wide event commemorating the conclusion of the Humility & Conviction in Public Life Project. For more information please visit https://humilityandconviction.uconn.edu/.