Join the American Political Science Association (APSA) for a webinar discussion sharing best practices to connect students to the 2024 U.S. Election.
The 2024 U.S. election presents educators across the United States with the opportunity to help their students engage in the democratic system. Why is it essential to teach democratic citizenship and civic engagement? What concrete steps can higher educators use to connect students to the U.S. election process at all levels?
Event: Preparing Students for the 2024 Election: Campus Engagement and Civic Education Webinar
Date: Monday, April 15, 2024
Time: 12:00 PM EST
Registration: Register here (registration is required)
This panel aims to bring together scholar-educators to share best practices and new approaches to campus engagement and teaching democratic citizenship.
Featured panelists include:
- Marcus Board Jr., Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University
- Elizabeth A. Bennion, Chancellor’s Professor of Political Science and Director of Community Engagement at Indiana University South Bend
- Connie Jorgensen, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Piedmont Virginia Community College
- Melissa R. Michelson, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Menlo College
- Sekou Franklin, Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University
- J. Cherie Strachan (Moderator), Professor of Political Science at The University of Akron and Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics
The event is open to the public, but registration is required. Please direct any questions to teaching@apsanet.org.
Meet the Panelists
Marcus Board Jr., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University in Washington D.C. and author of Invisible Weapons (Oxford 2022). His research engages social movements, radical Black feminist theories of power, and public opinion. Marcus’ community work has grown over the past twenty years, building politically and personally connected communities while advocating for youth empowerment, abolition, and systemic accountability.
Elizabeth A. Bennion is Chancellor’s Professor of Political Science and Director of Community Engagement at Indiana University South Bend where she also directs the American Democracy Project. She promotes informed and engaged citizenship as a TV host, civic leader, and organizer of local and statewide political debates. She has received numerous local, state, and national teaching and service awards. Her 80+ published works include large-scale, voter mobilization field experiments, best practice guides to promoting and assessing civic learning, critical reflections on race and gender, a book on teaching experimental political science and three co-edited books on teaching civic engagement.
Connie Jorgensen is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville. She is also the director of PVCC’s Quality Enhancement Plan, Civic Sense: engaging students in the civic life of their communities. In 2022 Jorgensen received the Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty Award from the American Association of Community Colleges. She lives in Charlottesville with her husband, Ben and her cat, Esther.
Dr. Melissa R. Michelson (PhD Yale University) is Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Menlo College. She is past president of the American Political Science Association (APSA) Latino Caucus and of the APSA LGBT Caucus, and a past visiting faculty fellow of the Stanford University Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Dr. Michelson is a nationally recognized expert in Latinx voter mobilization and LGBTQ politics. She is the award-winning co-author of seven books, including Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns (2012), which received the 2013 APSA Ralph Bunche award, and, most recently, LGBTQ Life in America (2021). Her next book, Party at the Mailbox: Mobilizing Black Turnout with Celebrations of Community, is forthcoming in fall 2024.
Dr. Michelson’s academic work is solidly based in activist scholarship. She went to graduate school to become a teacher and delights in leading classroom discussions, but also to write books that might make a difference, inspired by her undergraduate professor at Columbia University, Dr. Charles V. Hamilton. Dr. Michelson’s current projects include ongoing research on how best to motivate Latinx and Black citizens to vote, how drag performers can increase voter turnout, how to reduce prejudice against members of the LGBTQ community, and many other smaller projects.
Dr. Sekou Franklin is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He is the author of After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation (NYU Press, 2014) and edited the State of Blacks in Middle Tennessee. His most recent book (co-authored with Ray Block) is called Losing Power: African Americans and Racial Polarization in Tennessee Politics (University of Georgia Press, 2020).
He is the former President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (2019-2021). He resides in North Nashville with his wife and two daughters.
J. Cherie Strachan is Professor of Political Science at The University of Akron and Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. Her political science research combines interests in political participation, voluntary civic and political organizations, and political communication. Recent work explores the #MeToo movement and women’s political ambition, as well as the effects of partisan polarization, rudeness, and civility on political engagement. Her applied civic engagement pedagogy research focuses on facilitating student-led deliberative discussions sessions and on enhancing the political socialization that occurs within campus student organizations.
Strachan is also co-author of the textbook Why Don’t Women Rule the World? and co-editor of the APSA-published resource Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond.