Rhode Island Students Awarded 2019 Pell Medal for Excellence in U.S. History
Newport, R.I. — Fifty-nine students from across Rhode Island earned the Herbert and Claiborne Pell Medal for U.S. History this year. The medal, originally presented by Senator Claiborne Pell and his wife, Mrs. Nuala Pell, recognizes college and high school students in the state who have excelled in U.S. History. “The study of history is essential to understanding and protecting our republic,” said Pell Center Executive Director, Dr. Jim Ludes. … Read More
White Identity Politics with Ashley Jardina
Air Dates: August 5-11, 2019 Identity politics are typically associated with marginalized groups—communities that have been defined as “other” by the dominant group in a political culture. Ashley Jardina argues that there is an emerging white-identity politics in American society today. Jardina is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Her book White Identity Politics explores the nature of racial attitudes, the development of group identities, and the … Read More
The Power of Story with Danny Strong
Air Dates: July 29-August 4, 2019 “Story in the Public Square” began as an annual, academic conference at Salve Regina University. When we honored Danny Strong with the 2014 Pell Center Prize for Story in the Public Square, his acceptance speech was so moving, so incisive, and so eloquent about the power of story that a public television executive in the audience asked if she could broadcast it. She did, … Read More
Nuala Pell Leadership Program Selects Fellows for 2019-2020
Ten rising juniors and seniors at Salve Regina University have been selected as fellows for the Nuala Pell Leadership Program for 2019-2020. This innovative leadership development program is run by the Pell Center and is named in honor of the wife of U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell. The program facilitates leadership development for the twenty-first century through monthly meetings where students will explore leadership theory, ethics, evolution of public issues and … Read More
It’s Exam Time: Impeachment is the Subject
I love being a professor. I teach one class every fall and it is the highlight of my year. I get 18 to 25 students who I can introduce to my passion for history, energize their critical thinking, stretch their minds and their imaginations, and hopefully inspire them to keep asking questions and looking to history for examples that are relevant to them—no matter what they do in the rest … Read More
The Opportunity Costs of Today’s Politics
I like Ike. On April 16, 1953, five weeks after the death of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, Eisenhower delivered the “Chance for Peace” speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. It is a classic of cold war political warfare with the Soviet Union—but it’s also a beautiful exposition of the concept of “opportunity cost.” Eisenhower described in the most human terms how the arms race between the Soviet Union … Read More
Editorial Cartoons with Adam Zyglis
Air Dates: July 15-21, 2019 Editorial cartoonists occupy the space between writing and drawing—capturing truth and big ideas with seemingly simple illustration and an economy of words. Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Adam Zyglis uses evocative images to connect with readers while conveying layers of meaning in a few words. Zyglis has produced cartoons for The Buffalo News since 2004. His cartoons are internationally syndicated and have appeared in many publications … Read More
We are Americans, First
I saw a Tweet this week that made me laugh a little. Someone had shared a video of the flooding in downtown DC on Monday when that deluge of rain came through. The National Archives had tweeted the footage and pointed out that you could see their building beyond the waves of the flood waters. An historian at Georgetown said he hoped the Constitution had been kept dry because “we … Read More
Native American History with Philip Deloria
Air Dates: July 1-7, 2019 The British colonies in the New World, and later the United States, were built on land taken from native populations. Philip Deloria explores the interplay of Native Americans and the development of America’s national identity. Deloria is the first tenured professor of Native American history in the long history of Harvard University. His first book, Playing Indian (1998), explores the tradition of white Americans dressing … Read More
The Impact of Technology on Modern Relationships with Helen Schulman
Air Dates: June 24-30, 2019 It is almost taken for granted that technology is changing America. Whether we’re talking about job losses, election meddling, or the role of big-data in healthcare, technology is everywhere. Helen Schulman, through her remarkable fiction, warns that technology is changing our personal relationships and our families, too. Schulman, a novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and non-fiction author, is the chair of Fiction for the MFA Creative … Read More