Panel to Discuss Global Impact of Election

01/23/2017 

When Girish Bhat, a SUNY Cortland professor of history, looks at the recent U.S. Presidential election, he looks at it from the point of view of the country’s complicated past political relationship with Russia and the earlier Soviet Union.

“Whatever happens with U.S.-Russia relations under Trump, it’s important to understand the complicated history of how America has tried to deal with Russia, and earlier the Soviet Union, and whether America’s claim to moral superiority in international relations is as simple and clear as it seems throughout history,” Bhat said.

On Wednesday, Feb. 1, five SUNY Cortland historians, each with very different lenses to the past, will try to shed light on the recent 2016 U.S. Presidential election by examining history and the implications it may have, on both national and global scales.

The panel discussion, “Making America Great? Historians Reflect on President Donald Trump and the 2016 Election,” takes place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

Presented by the History Department and moderated by Chair Randi Storch, five faculty members will share their particular area of expertise for seven minutes in turn and then open up to audience questions and answers.

Panelists and their topics include:

• Girish Bhat: “U.S.-Russia Relations: Back to the Future?”
• Ben DeLee: “America’s Caesar”
• Evan Faulkenbury: “The Long History of Voter Suppression Since 1865”
• Scott Moranda: “Weimar Germany and Trump’s America”
• Luo Xu: “U.S. — China Relations: What is at Stake?”

“The purpose of the panel is to help our students think about how history can help us make sense of our world today,” Storch said. “In order to know where we are as a society and where we want to go, we need to know where we’ve been.”

The event kicks off the first day of Black History Month and is part of a series of events scheduled throughout February, all of which can be found on the campus calendar.

Black History Month sponsors include the: President’s Office; the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Office; the School of Arts and Sciences; the Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies; the Africana Studies, Political Science, History, and Philosophy departments; Multicultural Life and Diversity; Project for Eastern and Central Europe; Campus Artists and Lecture Series; Black Student Union; and the Pan African Student Association.

For more information, contact Storch at 607-753-2723.

Prepared by Communications Office writing intern Charlie Beeler