Graduate Students Present Work on the History of American Democracy

On September 26th and 27th, the Tobin Project convened nine graduate students for a workshop on the History of American Democracy. Participants joined Tobin staff and alumni of previous workshops to share their research projects, give feedback on each other’s work, and consider the potential impact of their topics, which included:

- The effect of administrative burden on political participation

- Economic voter intimidation and workplace democracy in the late-nineteenth century

- The rise and regulation of bank holding companies in the twentieth century

- Partisan manipulation of legislative committee assignments since reconstruction

These projects related to Tobin’s research initiative on the History of American Democracy, which seeks to identify the institutions, practices, and norms that have been critical to the functioning and evolution of democratic governance in the United States. This workshop was organized to build on the success of our 2018 History of American Democracy Graduate Student Workshop, and we were impressed by the rigor and depth of discussion during this event. We hope to continue to support innovative, problem-focused work on this important topic and look forward to subsequent opportunities to convene graduate students around other Tobin inquiries.

Learn more about Tobin’s Graduate Student Workshops »

Learn more about the 2019 History of American Democracy Graduate Student Fellows »