Over the next week, LearnSpeakAct will publish a series of three posts on the March for Science, which took place on April 22, 2017. By Michael Heaney The presidency of Donald J. Trump has helped to spark a new wave of political discontent across the United States. This discontent is unusual in that it has…
On “Populism” Today
The political meaning of “populism” (and “populist”) has become notoriously difficult to define. In the United States, it once had a fairly clear definition, referring to the People’s Party, which was founded in 1892 to represent the interests in particular of poor and middling farmers and to challenge the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans,…
Introducing LearnSpeakAct: A LSA Blog
This new blog is rooted in a particular time and place and emerged from a distinctive set of circumstances. In the fall 2016, the University of Michigan unveiled a five-year strategic plan to increase Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on campus. During the same semester, racist flyers were posted across campus that made erroneous and discriminatory claims about the nature…
Are we building a wall?
By Anita Gonzalez, Professor of Theatre and Drama University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Are we building a wall? My friends and associates wonder what will be accomplished by cordoning off good will between us. The xenophobic anxiety of our current administration and its electorate, stands in stark opposition to a lived history of collaboration. One…
Is Trump a Fascist?
By Geoff Eley, Department of History During the events of the recent past—especially during the Presidential election campaign and the turmoil surrounding the inauguration and early initiatives of the new administration-—the label of “fascist” has been easily reached for and bandied around, whether in relation to Steve Bannon and other intellectual influences now centrally installed in…
Why Partisan News—Not Just Fake News—Promotes Political Misperceptions
Brian E. Weeks: Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Faculty Associate in the Center for Political Studies In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election there has been much attention placed on “fake news”—websites and social media posts that often resemble real, credible news but instead create and spread political falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and…