How Did We Get HERE? The 2016 presidential election through anthropological, sociological, and historical lenses.
by on Oct 10, 2016Feeling as if you’d like a little help through this election season?
Come hear three Gavilan social scientists use their disciplines to bring some understanding to a chaotic process.
WHEN: Oct. 13 at 6-8 p.m.
WHERE: Morgan Hill Community Playhouse on Monterey.
COST: Free for students and $2 for non-students.
About the presenters:
Dr. Debbie Klein is a professor of Anthropology at Gavilan College, where she has been teaching for twelve years. At Gavilan, Debbie has served in a variety of leadership roles. Debbie recently chaired a statewide non-credit committee that worked collaboratively with California Community College system partners to reshape noncredit programs. She serves as a regional governor for the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. Debbie actively publishes and presents papers in the anthropology of performance, and has been conducting research in Nigeria for over twenty years.She will Identify some of the recent conditions that produced these two candidates (first black president, Black Lives Matter movement, Tea Party, Sanders, third party candidates, etc.), analyze where the two candidates fit into "US presidential culture" (race, class, gender, religion, sexuality), and identify some narratives about the election and candidates produced largely by mainstream US media sources.
Dr. Nicholas Park is a professor of Sociology at Gavilan College. His professional research interests focus on the sociology of families, with particular attention on adoption, infertility, motherhood and fatherhood, and same-sex parenting. He previously held appointments at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, where he was also the chair of the Institutional Review Board and served on various committees and action groups focused on diversity and campus climate concerns. Dr. Park will discuss how our gender system has shaped the way we perceive this election, and he will explore theories about Trump’s rise to popularity.
Leah Halper has been teaching at Gavilan since 1990. A Stanford-trained oral historian, she has special interests in social and women’s history. She is also a former journalist with a strong commitment to the First Amendment. She’s involved at Gavilan in a Civic Engagement project funded by the federal government’s Title V project, and helps administer the college’s Service Learning program. She is an often-produced playwright whose work re-imagines historical and/or digital worlds. Ms. Halper will discuss the history of populist candidates, US women’s barriers to political participation, and campaign contributions as historical and relevant forces in this election cycle.
About the Distinguished Lecture Series:
The Distinguished Lecture series is a partnership between Gavilan College and the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce. It is supported by the college’s Civic Engagement Title V Grant. Three lectures are planned, one every other month over the 2016-2017 academic year.