American Studies

WGSS Co-Sponsors Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium

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A group of participants poses in front of a display of puppets at the Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium.
From left to Right: Katharine Capshaw, CLAS associate dean and professor of English and social and critical inquiry; Jeffrey Ogbar, professor of history and Africana studies; Paulette Richards, curator and puppetry historian; Vibiana Bowman, Rutgers University; John Bell, director of the Ballard Institute of and Museum of Puppetry; Nancy Naples, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of sociology and social and critical inquiry; Khalilah Brooks, puppeteer, Aunty B’s House; Stephen L. Ross, professor of economics; and Jacqueline Wade, filmmaker and puppeteer.

The Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Area in the Department of Social and Critical Inquiry co-sponsored the Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium, which took place Oct. 25-26, 2024.

Hosted by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, the event offered an interdisciplinary exploration of how puppetry in the U.S. has intersected with the Civil Rights Movement, residential segregation, and the Women’s Movement. It featured several panel discussions; a film screening on African American puppetry; and a keynote by curator Paulette Richards, an adjunct instructor in the UConn School of Fine Arts.

The event was attended by scholars, puppeteers, and activists from across the U.S. and abroad. Participants from the Department included CLAS Associate Dean and Professor Katharine Capshaw and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Nancy Naples.

UConn Scholars Consider ‘Historic Firsts’ of 2024 Election

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Story reposted from UConn Today

Moderator Catherine Shen and panelists Manisha Sinha, Christopher Vials, and Evelyn Simien, engage in a discussion.
From left, moderator Catherine Shen and panelists Manisha Sinha, Christopher Vials, and Evelyn Simien, engage in a discussion during the "Historic Firsts: The 2024 Presidential Election" forum at the Old State House in Hartford on Oct. 8, 2024. (Sydney Herdle/UConn Photo)

It’s rare that any particular event can be confidently predicted to be of major historical significance before it happens, but American presidential elections definitely fit the bill. And while all presidential elections are momentous, each one has unique dynamics and characteristics that influence history in very different ways.

It was with this in mind that three UConn scholars gathered at the Old State House in Hartford on Tuesday, Oct. 8, to analyze the current presidential contest in terms of historical significance – and what makes this election distinct.

One of the most striking differences between this election and every previous presidential campaign is that a major party nominee – Vice President Kamala Harris – is a woman of color. Even more remarkable, the scholars said, is the way she came to win the Democratic Party’s nomination – being endorsed by President Joe Biden after his unprecedented decision to drop out of the race just weeks before the party’s nominating convention in August.

“What I will never forget, especially as a political scientist, is the way she came to be the Democratic nominee,” said Evelyn Simien, professor of Political Science, Director of the Africana Studies Institute, and author of “Historic Firsts: How Symbolic Empowerment Changes U.S. Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Watch a recording of the event
 

Manisha Sinha, the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History and author of “The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (Yale University Press, 2017)” and “The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 (Liveright, 2024),” agreed that the circumstances of Harris’ nomination make the 2024 election unique.

“This is probably one of the first times we’ve had a presidential nominee so late in the game who has been able to step up so quickly,” she said.

Another distinctive factor of this election, argued Christopher Vials, professor of English and author of “Haunted by Hitler: Liberals, the Left, and the Fight Against Fascism in the United States (University of Massachusetts Press, 2014),” is that “new taboos continue to be broken” in political rhetoric surrounding the race.

Pointing to an interview the pundit Tucker Carlson conducted in September with a far-right podcaster notorious for defending the Third Reich and blaming Winston Churchill for World War II, Vials said, “Tucker Carlson is nodding his head, and then Elon Musk tweets about how that was a fabulous interview. They’re sort of breaking the Hitler taboo now.”

One concern all three scholars shared was the possibility of low voter turnout, especially in states like Connecticut, where the presidential race is not expected to be competitive.

“A lot of people become a little blasé about elections; they think noting changes, they think their vote doesn’t count, and that can open the door to authoritarian outcomes in elections,” Sinha said.

Simien said she reminds her students that the right to vote has only, in historical terms, recently been won by all Americans regardless of race or gender, and shouldn’t be taken for granted.

“Younger voters owe a debt to older generations, people who have sacrificed life and limb so that we can have the right to cast a vote in American elections,” she said.

Vials noted the importance of elections for state and local offices, pointing out that decisions made in city hall or Hartford often have immediate, direct consequences in daily life.

“State elections affect your lives a lot; they determine whether social services are going to be provided, whether universities are going to be funded, tax rates, who gets taxed – those are things that affect people’s lives every day, apart from the federal election,” he said.

The forum at the Old State House was sponsored by the UConn Department of Critical and Social Inquiry, Department of English, Africana Studies Institute, Department of History, and the Department of Political Science.