Members of Hamilton’s faculty have been called upon repeatedly in the last few months within and beyond the campus to offer their expertise and insight on a variety of issues related to the upcoming election. Beginning with his analysis of data from the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES) pilot survey published by Vox in June focused on the dominant views of Trump supporters, Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, has continued to receive significant media attention.
Most recently, an Oct. 15 Vox article titled Taking Trump voters’ concerns seriously means listening to what they are actually saying referenced Klinkner’s research. “…while support for Trump is correlated most strongly with party ID, the second biggest factor, per the analysis of Hamilton College political scientist Philip Klinkner, was racial resentment. Economic pessimism and income level were statistically insignificant.”
Locally Klinkner has been a weekly regular on Utica’s WUTQ’s morning program analyzing the presidential campaign and associated debates and is quoted frequently on those topics in Utica’s Observer-Dispatch. He is scheduled to be heard on Utica’s WIBX’s morning program next week and on Moyers in Conversation podcast featuring Bill Moyers.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Sam Rosenfeld has appeared before and after the presidential debates on NBC/CBS local affiliate WKTV discussing strategies and outcomes. He has done the same on radio station WIBX. Rosenfeld and three Hamilton students were interviewed on Utica ABC/FOX affiliate WUTR after the third presidential debate. See the clip here.
Richard Bedient, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Mathematics, offered a fascinating accounting of the varied methods by which the composition of the Electoral College has been calculated since the nation’s founding. His lecture, Hot Seats: The Math of Electoral Apportionment, was part of the Levitt Center’s 2016 Election Series. Associate Professor of Government Peter Cannavo offered High Stakes for the Planet: The 2016 Presidential Election, also as part of the Levitt series. Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Professor of International Relations, will present American Foreign Policy and the Election on Oct. 21 as part of the same series. His lecture will address questions related to how the election effect U.S. foreign policy and how will it affect the foreign policy of other world powers. Professor of Sociology Dennis Gilbert will present Inequality and the Election on Oct. 26.
Off campus, Assistant Professor of Government Gbemende Johnson discussed the ways in which the current presidential campaign reflects increasing levels of polarization across communities in the United States in a lecture series offered at Utica’s The Other Side. She explored the impact on the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.
