Tobin Hosts Graduate Student Workshop on the History of American Democracy

On May 31st and June 1st, the Tobin Project held a Graduate Student Workshop on the History of American Democracy. Nine graduate students from a range of disciplines and institutions joined Tobin staff and alumni of previous workshops to share their research projects. Participants provided input on each other’s work and considered the potential impact of their topics, which included:

- The elite origins of local elective offices in the United States
- The influence of race and class on the emergency management of Michigan cities
- The intellectual development of meritocracy in the United States between 1940 and 2000

These projects all related to Tobin’s research inquiry on the History of American Democracy, which seeks to investigate how American democracy has functioned and evolved over time in order to equip scholars, policymakers, and the public with the necessary tools to diagnose contemporary problems and design effective solutions. This event was the second Tobin Project Graduate Student Workshop organized around one of our core research initiatives, following our workshop on Reassessing Threat Assessment this past April. We have been immensely pleased by the rigor and breadth of discussion during both workshops, and we look forward to subsequent opportunities to engage with graduate students and encourage research agendas that could have a lasting effect on scholarship and policy.

Learn more about Tobin’s Graduate Student Workshops »

Learn more about the 2018 History of American Democracy Graduate Student Fellows »