SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT 11/8/12:
Tonight's class will be held as usual in Room 130, Kane Hall (cap. 720), but we have reserved Room 110, Kane Hall (cap. 230) and arranged a video feed for an overflow crowd. We will have a wait list for the main classroom, Room 130--tickets are $20 per person, and participants will be allowed in at 6:55pm on a space-available basis. Tickets to the auxiliary classroom, Room 110, are $5 per person, available on a first-come, first-served basis. The box office will open at 5:30pm outside Room 130 .

 

Faith and finance, also known as religion and economics, have been the twin pillars of American politics and public life for generations. For example, the 2012 presidential candidates will debate the quality of the economic recovery and which candidate can more effectively restore U.S. economic health. The personal wealth of the candidates and their ability to relate to the economic concerns of ordinary Americans will also take a starring role in the campaign. At the same time, religious faith is contested ground in the country at large and in politics. Mitt Romney could become the first Mormon to win the presidency, and a significant minority continues to believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. Questions of faith and religious liberty—such as requiring health insurers at religious institutions to cover birth control—have already been prominent campaign themes, and faith-aligned divisions will influence people’s voting choices. This lecture series will examine the roles of both faith and finance in 2012 election. Professors Domke and Smith will both present each evening and engage in dialogue and debate with one other and the audience.  Tickets will be mailed in the summer, when the 2012-13 season begins.  

 

David Domke worked as a journalist for several newspapers in the 1980s and early 1990s, including the Orange County Register and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, before earning a Ph.D. in 1996. He is now a Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. He is the author of two books. The first was published in 2004 and examines the religious rhetoric of the Bush administration and its influence on news coverage and public opinion, God Willing?: Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the “War on Terror,” and the Echoing Press (Pluto Press). His second book, The God Strategy: How Religion Became A Political Weapon in America, was published in 2008 by Oxford University Press, and was issued with an updated edition in autumn 2010. In recent years Domke has spoken about politics and communication with academic, political, media, and public audiences around the country, and he has worked closely with several organizations and on a number of campaigns. In 2002 he received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest honor for teaching. In 2006, he received the Hiller Krieghbaum Under-40 Award, given by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, for outstanding early career accomplishments. Also in 2006 he was named the Washington state Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2008 he was selected as the favorite professor of the UW graduating class.

 

Mark Smith Mark A. Smith completed his undergraduate degree at M.I.T. and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 1997 before joining the faculty at the University of Washington. He is Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of Communication and Comparative Religion at the UW. Smith’s research and teaching focuses on American domestic politics, including elections, public opinion, interest groups, and religion. He is the author of an award-winning book, American Business and Political Power: Public Opinion, Elections, and Democracy (Chicago 2000) and The Right Talk: How Conservatives Transformed the Great Society into the Economic Society (Princeton 2007). He is currently finishing a third book titled Secular Faith: Why Culture Trumps Religion in American Politics. Smith has also written a number of articles and commentaries about issues in American politics. He is a regular commentator on national and state electoral politics for print, radio, and television outlets, and he received the Distinguished Graduate Award from the Department of Political Science of the University of Minnesota in 2010.