Thursday, February 23, 2012

NH First-in-the-Nation Primary: Guest lecture, Prof. Dante Scala at UNH, via Skype





We skyped with Professor Dante Scala at the University of New Hampshire.

Students read and wrote a paper about his book, Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics.

Professor Scala talked about the history of New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary, its role in the nominating season, and his take on the 2012 Republican primary in New Hampshire.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Iowa Caucuses: Prof David Redlawsk Guest Lecture, via skype

Students read and wrote papers about Professor David Redlawsk's book about the Iowa Caucuses.

Redlawsk, Tolbert, and Donovan. Why Iowa? How Caucuses and Sequential Process Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Students left with a better understanding of the history of the Iowa Caucuses, how the Iowa Cuacuses actually work (and the differences between Republican and Democratic party rules), and the impact of the Caucuses on the presidential nominating process

Skyping in experts from around the country (and around the world)into my classroom is my new favorite teaching tool.

Prof Emeritus Darryl Paulson guest lecture



Professor Darryl Paulson (Professor Emeritus at USFSP) is working on a book about the history of the Republican Party in Florida. He visited our Road to the White House class to share his analysis of how the Republican presidential primary contest is shaping up to date, as well as his insights about the Florida presidential primary in particular.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Bibliographic Research Session at Poynter Library





In addition to their presidential campaign internships, all students in the Road to the White House are conducting in-depth research about a specific presidential campaign. Students will deliver a short presentation to the seminar about their research findings during Week 11 of the semester.

Students benefitted from a bibliographic instruction session with reference librarian Jim Schnur at Poynter Library during Week 2 of the semester (January 19).

In addition to sharing tips with our students about how to access materials about presidential campaigns and elections, Mr. Schnur shared with them an example of a primary source from our library's collection -- a handwritten letter by President George Washington.

These are the presidential elections that students will be studying:

The Election of 1800: DEPASQUALE
The Election of 1824: DILLARD
The Election of 1860: BUSCHMAN
The Election of 1864: REINERT
The Election of 1888: VARTANIAN
The Election of 1896: LLOYD
The Election of 1912: SCOTT
The Election of 1916: PLANZO
The Election of 1924: ELLINGTON
The Election of 1928: MOTT
The Election of 1948: WOLF
The Election of 1960: BROCKMEIER
The Election of 1976: GUZMAN
The Election of 1980: THOMPSON
The Election of 1988: DIOSO
The Election of 1992: BICKHARDT
The Election of 1996: SHANE
The Election of 2000: BUCHWALTER
The Election of 2004: HUNTSINGER
The Election of 2008: CABRERA