91·çÔÂÂ¥

Two-thirds of voters think the United States is on the “wrong track” (RealClear Polling). Only 28 percent think our democracy is working well (Gallup). Clear majorities of both Democrats and Republicans see the other party as a threat to America (Ipsos). A failed assassination led to calls to “lower the temperature of our politics,” but our divisions are more than rhetorical. Only one-fourth of voters have a great deal of trust in the federal government, down from three-fourths in 1958 (Pew Research). Over the past 25 years, the percentage of voters valuing patriotism, religion, hard work, voluntarism, and having children has sharply declined (Wall Street Journal). How can we bring Americans together and repair our fraying civic culture? Timothy G. O’Rourke (Ph.D., Duke, Political Science) served as Vice President and Provost at VWU from 2007 to 2019. He has published widely on state and local government and apportionment and has testified on voting rights before both U.S. House and Senate committees.

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

What might initially seem like a derisive, stilted nickname, “Laffin’ Kamala” reflects how the laughter of Black Americans has long been associated with intense white anxiety, police intervention, and democratic resistance. Ralph Ellison’s 1985 essay “An Extravagance of Laughter” explores how the distinctive sounds, styles, and tonalities of Black laughter are products of a history of racial oppression and how white supremacy sustains itself by treating these differences in laughter as evidence of essential racial difference. Patrick Giamario discusses what Ellison’s work can tell us about this timely cultural and political phenomenon. Patrick Giamario, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. His first book, Laughter as Politics: Critical Theory in an Age of Hilarity, was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2022.

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

How do Americans see themselves? How has that changed over the years? How does that affect how they get and receive political information? And how does this affect the quality of our democracy? Join us for an important conversation about issues of identity in America and why those issues matter so much today. Leslie Caughell, Ph.D., is Associate Professor Political Science at VWU. Having studied public opinion and political communication at the University of Illinois, she is the author of The Political Battle of the Sexes: Exploring the Gender Gaps in Policy Preferences (2016).

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

What did newly freed slaves have to do with the VWU campus? What is the intentionally secret message at the statue of John Wesley? Why did a grove of trees cause deep controversy on campus? Why is a peace pole at the center of campus? Why was AIDS seen as particularly important here? These and other questions will be addressed on a walking tour of VWU’s sacred spaces.

A sacred space is more than just a physical location; it is a place imbued with significance, memory, and a sense of reverence. While some such spaces are obvious (e.g. Yosemite National Park, the Lincoln Memorial, and the National Cathedral), VWU’s sacred spaces may not be as immediately recognizable. Join us as we visit and learn about sites that serve as touchstones for reflection, remembrance, and inspiration. First tour begins at 12:00 p.m., followed by a second at 1:30 p.m.

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

How did American public education begin? How has it been used or denied? Why does any of this matter in a democracy? This presentation highlights how public education was started and how it has changed in the United States, why some motives and strategies undermine public education, and why teachers today face challenges unlike anything they have experienced before. Desegregation, anti-intellectualism, unique religious forces, the Red Scare, and gun culture all have created challenges in public schools. A 1983 alumna of VWU, Clair Berube, Ph.D., earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in urban studies and education at Old Dominion University before returning to VWU as a faculty member in 2020. She is co-author of The End of School Reform (2006), The Moral University (2010), and the recently published The Investments: An American Conspiracy (2020).

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

Many Americans have expressed concerns about the U.S. election system, albeit for different reasons. Is the process of voting too hard? Is the system too easy to manipulate? Do our rules make voting fair and accessible to all? Are we doing enough to ensure accuracy and credibility? In this moderated deliberation, participants explore options for addressing voting concerns, consider diverse viewpoints, and weigh the advantages, drawbacks, and trade-offs of different approaches. Public deliberation has been shown to improve mutual understanding of differing viewpoints and offers a constructive alternative to shouting past one another across political divides. Participation is limited.  now.

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

In the course of their education, early Virginians like Thomas Jefferson encountered Greek and Latin texts, monuments, and constitutional ideas. So, it’s no surprise that those texts and ideas would end up shaping and influencing the cultural history of Virginia’s Tidewater region. Haller’s most recent book looks at how Jefferson’s readings in Greek and Roman texts led him to articulate ideals of religious freedom and a conviction that all human beings are created equal.  Learn how the rediscovery of a lost palimpsest may have inspired a plan for a planetarium—never completed—in the Rotunda at UVA, how a paint chip prised from a metope at UVA sheds light on Jefferson's engagement in the question of whether the Greeks painted their statues, and how a tiny inaccuracy in John Trumbull's famous painting of Independence Hall sheds  light on Jefferson's ideas about Greek democracy. Benjamin Haller, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Classics at VWU.

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

In the nearly 250 years of America's existence, only 45 men have held its highest office, a strange assortment of politicians, citizens, generals, businessmen, schemers, dreamers, heroes, and failures. Convinced he might find something new to say about the Chief Executives, essayist Colin Rafferty wrote short creative works that took on each president. In his book Execute the Office, George Washington's teeth dance the Virginia Reel while Ronald Reagan meets John Wayne in a film script. Franklin Pierce gets diagnosed, Rutherford B. Hayes sends postcards from home, George W. Bush watches the hurricane index rise, and we consider what the notion that anyone can become president really means to us. Colin Rafferty received an MFA from the University of Alabama and teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Mary Washington. He writes about monuments and memorials (Hallow This Ground, Break Away Books, published in 2016), presidents (Execute the Office, Baobab Press, published in 2021), and Vietnam (book in-process).

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

Buttons supporting William Jennings Bryan endorsed him—in Yiddish. Fans of Herbert Hoover, a Quaker, demanded “A Christian in the White House,” even though he was running against a Catholic. Bahais proudly declared their support for Barack Obama on their lapels, as did Buddhists, Catholics, Confucians, Druze, and many others. As former New York Mayor Ed Koch declared, “Buttons, stickers, and songs . . . are the sparkle and glitter of which our campaigns are made.”  This exploration of presidential campaign buttons examines the diversity of religious terms, images, and symbols and how they have been used to communicate both positive and negative messages to potential voters. Eric M. Mazur, Ph.D., is the Gloria and David Furman Professor of Judaic Studies at VWU and serves as the Fellow for Religion, Law, and Politics for the Robert Nusbaum Center.

For more information, contact the Robert Nusbaum Center at 757.455.3129 or NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.