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Upcoming Events

Information about events to be hosted or sponsored by the Center for Congressional & Presidential Studies in 2024.

1st Fall 2024 Thurber Dialogues on Democracy with Prof. Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Kaitlyn DaVisio in Conversation with Ron Elving
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 4:00pm-5:30pm
Kerwin Hall, Room 301


Join CCPS and KPU on Tuesday, October 29 from 4-5:30pm for the first Thurber Dialogues on Democracy of the semester. This conversation will feature Prof. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at AU, where she is also a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Education. 

Additionally, she will be joined by AU PhD student Kaitlyn DaVisio, a Graduate Student Research Associate at PERIL. CCPS Interim Director Ron Elving will moderate. 

Register for this event here.

The 7th Annual Barbara Sinclair Lecture with Prof. Eric Schickler
Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 6pm ET
NT01 (Ceremonial Classroom) at the Washington College of Law


The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at SPA will hold the 7th Annual Barbara Sinclair Lecture with Professor Eric Schickler on Tuesday, November 19.

Eric Schickler is the Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science and co-Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies American politics, with a focus on the U.S. Congress, American political development, political parties, and polarization. He is the author of three books which have won the Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize for the best book on legislative politics: Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001), Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the United States Senate (2006, with Gregory Wawro), and Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power (2016, with Douglas Kriner; also winner of the Richard E. Neustadt Prize for the best book on executive politics). His book, Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932-1965, was the winner of the Woodrow Wilson Prize for the best book on government, politics or international affairs published in 2016, and was co-winner of the J. David Greenstone Prize for the best book in history and politics from the previous two calendar years. He is also the co-author of Partisan Hearts and Minds, which was published in 2002. He is currently completing a co-authored book manuscript, with Paul Pierson, Madison Upside Down: The Rise of Nationalized Polarization and the Crisis of the American Constitutional Order. Schickler was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2017.  He received his B.A. from New College of Florida and his Ph.D. from Yale University.

Through this annual series, CCPS honors the late political scientist Barbara Sinclair, a renowned expert on Congress, by hosting a lecture by a prominent Congressional scholar. Previous hosts have included Steven S. Smith in 2023, Rodney Hero in 2022, Wendy Schiller from Brown University in 2021, Rick Hall from the University of Michigan in 2020, Frances Lee from Princeton University in 2019 and Sarah Binder from George Washington University in 2018.

Registration information will be available soon.