On May 2, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading, Sir David Bell, will formally launch ‘The Monroe Group’ a new interdisciplinary research group at the university focused around the politics and political history of North America and the Caribbean. I’m proud, alongside my colleague Dr. Maddi Davies from our English Literature Department, to be part of the triumvirate spearheading this new initiative, but all credit for this first event has to go to History’s Dr. Mara Oliva who first came up with the idea of the research group and has driven it from its genesis to near-launch with passion and determination few can match.<\/p>\n
Our launch event is a one-day research conference – Trump’s First 100 Days – which will look at a unique 100 days in the life of America from both political and historical perspectives. The conference is free to University of Reading staff and students, with a small charge for visitors from elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Here’s how the day shapes up:<\/p>\n
TRUMP\u2019S FIRST 100 DAYS
\nMay 2, 2017,\u00a0University of Reading<\/p>\n
9.30-9.45 University of Reading Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Bell, launches new research
\ncentre for the study of politics in the Americas and introduces keynote address<\/p>\n
9.45-11.00 Keynote Address: Professor Andrew Rudalevige – Bowdoin College<\/p>\n
11.00-11.30 coffee<\/p>\n
11.30-13.00 Panel 1: The first 100 days in historical perspective<\/p>\n
Mark Shanahan (Reading): Dwight D. Eisenhower & Trump
\nMark White (Queen Mary, University of London): JFK & Trump
\nIwan Morgan (UCL): Reagan & Trump<\/p>\n
13.00-14.00 lunch<\/p>\n
14.00-15.15 Panel 2: Political thinking and Minorities
\nEddie Ashbee (Copenhagen Business School): The Trump administration and the contemporary
\npopulist surge
\nKevern Verney (Edge Hill University): \u2018Bad Hombres\u2019: The Trump Administration, Mexican
\nImmigration, and the Border Wall
\nRichard Johnson (University of Oxford): White Flight from the Democratic Party: Explaining
\nTrump\u2019s Victory in the Midwest<\/p>\n
15.15-15.45 coffee<\/p>\n
15.45-17.00 Panel 3: 100 Days of Donald Trump: Devil, Detail and Domestic Policy
\nLee Marsden (East Anglia University): Pushing Back the Obama Legacy: Trump\u2019s First 100
\nDays and the Alt Right \u2013 Evangelical \u2013 Catholic coalition
\nClodagh Harrington (DeMonfort University): Pushing Forward, Rolling Back: The Fate of
\nReproductive Rights in the Trump Era
\nAlex Waddan (Leicester University): President Trump and Social Policy<\/p>\n
17.00-18.00 Foreign Policy Roundtable
\nJacob Parakilas (Chatham House), Maria Ryan (Nottingham), Malcolm Craig (Liverpool John
\nMoores, (Mara Oliva (Reading)
\n18.00 – 18.10 Closing Remarks<\/p>\n
If you’d like to join us, you’ll be most welcome, and to find out more, email me at m.j.shanahan@reading.ac.uk<\/p>\n
Over the coming days, the founder members of the group will be adding thoughts not just on our first event, but on what’s to follow, and more importantly, how we hope to work with researchers both across the university and at other institutions to deepen our study of all things large and small-p political in North America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n