Plenary Events: APSA and the 2024 program co-chairs, Danielle Allen, Harvard University, and Michael Neblo, The Ohio State University, look forward to your participation in these plenary panels and sessions during the meeting!
Plenary: Democracy, Retrenchment
Friday, September 6th, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Session Description: The 2024 Annual Meeting theme is “Democracy: Retrenchment, Renovation, and Reimagination,” and this plenary panel will emphasize assessing the first element in this trio of concepts, retrenchment. It will focus on 1) the interplay between elements of retrenchment, 2) whether citizens support retrenchment, tolerate it as the by-product of other goals, or misunderstand retrenchment dynamics, and 3) entry points to arrest and reverse such trends.
Presenters:
Hahrie Han, Johns Hopkins University (Moderator)
Danielle Allen, Harvard University
Guy-Uriel Charles, Harvard Law School
Timothy J. Shaffer, University of Delaware
Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University
Plenary: Democracy, Renovation and Reimagination
Friday, September 6th, 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Session Description: The 2024 Annual Meeting theme is “Democracy: Retrenchment, Renovation, and Reimagination,” and this plenary panel will feature the second and third elements of this trio of concepts: renovation and reimagination. It will focus on responses to retrenchment with a special emphasis on the recent proliferation of democratic innovations worldwide.
Presenters:
Michael Neblo, The Ohio State University (Moderator)
Senator Cathy Giessel, Congresswoman (R-Alaska)
Nolan McCarty, Princeton University
Spencer Overton, George Washington University
Meredith Sumpter, FairVote
Breaking News: AI and Democracy
Thursday, September 5th, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Session Description: While there has been much discussion of issues of bias, discrimination, and X-risk related to generative foundation models and the potential emergence of Artificial Generative Intelligence, conversations are still nascent about how AI challenges the stability of democratic political systems or can be tapped to help overcome current pain points in the functioning of democratic institutions. The panel will address these themes, with special emphasis on the opportunities for democracy introduced by generative foundation models.
Presenters:
Rob Reich, Stanford University (Moderator)
Amba Kak, AI Now Institute
Representative Ro Khanna, Congressman (D-California)
Alondra Nelson, Institute for Advanced Study
Nate Persily, Stanford University
Breaking News: Future of Political Parties
Thursday, September 5th, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Session Description: This panel will build from the 2023 APSA Task Force report on parties, More than Red and Blue, which diagnosed “the characteristics of political parties that exacerbate vulnerabilities” of U.S. democracy. In addition to looking at structural questions related to parties, this panel will also discuss current party realignments under way.
Presenters:
Daniel Schlozman, Johns Hopkins University (Moderator)
Sohrab Ahmari, Compact Magazine
Kerry Healey, Forward Party
David Lublin, American University
Breaking News: Implications of the Israel-Gaza Crisis for the Middle East and Beyond
Saturday, September 7th, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Session Description: The Gaza conflict is rapidly transforming the regional landscape and poses novel challenges to the global order. Third-party responses also raise important questions about legitimate protest, anti-Semitism, and the long shadow cast by post-colonial legacies. This panel will engage the conflict’s domestic, regional, and global implications in the context of its increasingly radicalized ideological challenges.
Presenters:
Danielle Allen, Harvard University (Moderator)
Melani Camett, Harvard University
Amaney Jamal, Princeton University
Ian Lustick, University of Pennsylvania
Yoav Peled, Tel Aviv University
Deva Woodly, Brown University