Hannah Rudkin (Social Work) holds up a "I Will Vote" sticker during a voter registration drive by School of Social Work and Justice and Peace Studies students on October 13, 2016 in the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center.

CAS Teach-in Tuesday Series Focuses on Power of the Vote

The first College of Arts and Sciences Teach-In Tuesday event of the new academic school year will be held at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at the O'Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium.

The theme of this year’s teach-ins is “The Power of the Vote,” marking the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and the coming 2020 election cycle, said Greg Robinson-Riegler, chair of the Teach-In Tuesday Committee.

“Teach-In Tuesday is a collective effort by faculty, staff, students and administration to share knowledge and engage in meaningful conversation as a means of building a more diverse and inclusive community,” Robinson-Riegler said. “Our primary focus is to build a sense of campus community, providing critical opportunities for those within our community to convene, learn and dialogue. The series leverages the expertise of CAS faculty to present on and invite discussion of important and urgent themes of the day.”

Angela High-Pippert, professor and chair of the political science program, will lead Tuesday’s talk, “Strategies of Suffragists: Lessons in Political Organizing.” According to the event description, High-Pippert will present highlights of the “exceedingly difficult and fascinating path to (some) women (re)gaining the right to vote in the United States in 1920.”

“The fight for women’s suffrage in the United States took 72 years, from the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920,” High-Pippert said. “That’s a very long time, but not when you consider what they were up against and what they were trying to accomplish. Suffragists changed the political system as outsiders – and, by definition, without the vote.”

The Teach-In Tuesday series debuted last December featuring topics focused on issues of racial inequality throughout the 2018-2019 school year.

“Inspired by the racial incident on campus last year, Teach-In-Tuesday was created to provide a space for meaningful learning and discussion around issues that impact our community,” said Yohuru Williams, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We look forward to another year of insightful and provocative presentations and discussions designed not only to inform, but also to create a sense of community and inspire transformative action.”