The University of Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy will host its inaugural conference, “The Change Election? The 2008 Presidential Election and the Future of American Politics,” on Oct. 5 and 6 (Monday and Tuesday) in the McKenna Hall auditorium.
Formerly Notre Dame’s Program in American Democracy, the Rooney Center was established last year through a $10 million gift from the Francis and Kathleen Rooney Foundation. Center faculty examine politics and policy-making in the United States and, with grounding in Notre Dame’s Catholic mission, facilitate research on the critical issues facing America’s democratic system and encourage Notre Dame students to be engaged in both civic and political life.
Bringing many of the nation’s top scholars of American elections to Notre Dame, the conference is free and open to the public. The schedule is as follows:
- Oct. 5, 9 a.m. − Vincent Hutchings from the University of Michigan and Paul Sniderman of Stanford University will speak on topics of race in the election
- Oct. 5, 10:45 a.m. − Leonie Huddy from Stony Brook University in New York and David Campbell of Notre Dame will examine gender and religion.
- Oct. 5, 1:30 p.m. − John Aldrich of Duke University and Geoff Layman of Notre Dame will discuss the political parties.
- Oct. 5, 3:15 p.m. − Ken Goldstein from the University of Wisconsin, Diana Owen of Georgetown University and David Nickerson and Lauren Deschamps from Notre Dame will examine mobilization and campaign communication
- Oct. 6, 9 a.m. − John Griffin of Notre Dame, William Howell from the University of Chicago, and Rogers Smith of the University of Pennsylvania will discuss Congress and the presidency.
- Oct. 6, 11:15 a.m. − Dianne Pinderhughes of Notre Dame and Kay Schlozman from Boston College will lead a roundtable discussion on observations and conclusions.
Additional information on speakers and topics is available here on the Web.
Contact: David Campbell, director, Rooney Center, 574-631-7809, Campbell.91@nd.edu