What's next for American democracy? Experts to address UCC public seminar

14 Mar 2024

• Declining trust in institutions and false claims about election fraud will be examined during the free public seminar.

Leading experts in American politics, foreign policy and history will address a public seminar on the US Presidential election at University College Cork (UCC) on Tuesday, 19 March.

Declining trust in institutions, false claims about election fraud, rising polarisation in US Congress and threats against public officials will be examined during the seminar, which is free to all to attend.

Dr Mary C. Murphy, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department, Department of Government and Politics at UCC, will chair the event 'The 2024 US Election and the Future of Democracy' which will examine some of the key challenges facing democracy in the United States.

Ahead of the seminar, Dr Mary Murphy said: “The outcome of the 2024 US Presidential election will have consequences for the foundations of US democracy, for international peace and stability, and for the health of the global economy. The stakes are high and will be felt far and wide, not least across the European continent and here in Ireland too. This UCC public seminar brings together an impressive collection of national and international experts and will offer a fascinating dissection of the most important US Presidential election in generations.”

The seminar will take place in UCC Western Gateway Building at 3pm on Tuesday, 19 March. 

Speakers include:

• Professor Andrew Rudalevige is Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College, Maine. He is currently visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science during the 2023-24 academic year, as well as an honorary professor affiliated with University College London's Center on United States Politics. He studies American political institutions, with an emphasis on the modern presidency, the executive branch, and interbranch relations.
• Dr Clodagh Harrington joined UCC in 2022 and teaches in the Departments of History and Government and Politics. Previously, she was Associate Professor of Politics at De Montfort University in Leicester where she taught American Politics and History since 2006.
• Dr Laurence Davis is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the MSc International Public Policy and Diplomacy in the Department of Government and Politics at University College Cork. He is a native of Pennsylvania in the United States and a longstanding student of U.S. government and politics.
• Dr David Fitzgerald is a historian of the United States in the world and a specialist in of American military history and foreign policy. Currently a senior lecturer in UCC School of History, he is the author and editor of a number of books, including Learning to Forget: US Army Counterinsurgency Doctrine from Vietnam to Iraq (Stanford, 2013), Militarization and the American Century: War, the United States and the World since 1941 (Bloomsbury, 2022), and, most recently, Uncertain Warriors: The United States Army between the Cold War and the War on Terror (Cambridge, 2023). His work has appeared in journals such as Modern American History, the Journal of Military History, the Journal of American Studies and the Journal of Strategic Studies.

The event ‘The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election and the Future of Democracy’ is jointly hosted by the School of History and the Department of Government and Politics at University College Cork.

Registration is now open here. Spaces are limited so early booking is recommended.