On Thursday, Oregon State University’s School of History, Philosophy and Religion will be hosting a flash panel, titled “Divided States of America: Sedition, the Inauguration, and the Unfolding Crisis in American Democracy.”
The title pretty much sums up the topic: What is going wrong with the American Experiment in democracy, and how this is being expressed in recent events like the terrorist raid on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the need to gather thousands of National Guard troops in Washington to prevent a similar putsch from interrupting the Inauguration of President-Elect Biden, and the need to purge those National Guard troops of Fascist sympathizers to prevent a nightmare scenario like the opening of the Capitol’s doors to would-be assassins by traitors wearing the uniform of the Capitol Police.
OSU scholars and experts from all over the country will speak about the origins of the current situation, and how a fertile climate for anti-democratic movements came into existence in a country which was supposedly founded upon the proposition that all men are created equal.
It’s one of a series of “flash panels” which the School of History, Philosophy and Religion, have held since 2016 on topics like the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation, Black Lives Matter protests, and the first Trump impeachment. This panel will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21 over Zoom. It is free and open to the public, but interested parties must register here.
Panel moderator Amy Koehlinger, Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies at OSU’s College of Liberal Arts, said, “This panel was already in planning stages before the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building, and that event only increased the importance of having a deeply informed conversation among experts about the conflicts and dangers surrounding the transition of presidential power.”
Taking part in the panel are:
Alison Gash, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon
Sylvester Johnson, Professor of Religion and Culture and founding director of the Virginia Tech Center for Humanities; and Executive Director of the University’s Tech for Humanity Initiative.
Christopher McKnight Nichols, OSU Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Humanities.
Joseph Orosco, OSU Professor of Philosophy
Christopher Stout, OSU Associate Professor of Political Science
Koehlinger said, “I want people attending the panel to come away with informed insights into the current political situation in the U.S. that help them be more thoughtful and engaged citizens of the U.S. and of the world.”
By John M. Burt
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