Fall 2020 Newsletter
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Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy NEWSLETTER I FALL 2020 The Given that we have, in the past, In the midst of some truly challenging times in higher education, the Kinder Institute joked about undergrads using us for feels lucky to have recruited a new wave of exciting young scholars to help deliver our Keurig, it’s only fair to note up our recently-expanded programs. While the COVID-19 pandemic has limited our front that our coffee costs are at an (and our students’) actual interactions with them so far, we nonetheless were thrilled all-time low. Jest aside, with KICD to welcome four faculty members to our ranks at the beginning of the fall semester classes largely being re-located from and to see a couple old friends transition into new and more central roles. Jesse 410 to roomier, safer venues On the political science side, the addition of a pair of eminent young scholars, on campus, the fourth floor has been Jennie Ikuta and Connor Ewing, has expanded our faculty’s range of expertise uncharacteristically—one might even and its potential audience among students and the public alike. By putting these say eerily—quiet this fall. two together with our existing political science faculty—KICD Director and Rest assured, however, that quietness constitutional scholar Justin Dyer, empirical analyst of federal bureaucracy and the in no way implies dormancy. constitutional separation of powers Jen Selin, and social scientific historian of voting Necessity, mothers, invention, etc., and political institutions Jay Dow—we will be able to engage our constituents in the new normal has only meant even more richly contoured inquiry into the theory and practice of U.S. political that we’ve pivoted to alternate development and public law. delivery methods in order to keep A University of Chicago graduate with a Ph.D. in political theory from Brown, Prof. the momentum we’ve built over the Jennie Ikuta brings fresh perspectives on democratic theory, a cornerstone of our past five years going. This has been scholarly mission since the Kinder Forum days, to the fourth floor of Jesse. As seen especially true of our undergrad Continued on page 2 Continued on page 10 1 CONTENTS in her new Oxford University Press book, Contesting Conformity: Democracy constitutional democracy in its proper Atlantic and global setting: how the ideas and the Paradox of Political Belonging, Jennie approaches democracy in a underlying it had roots in antiquity but migrated from Europe; how the people came Cover Story broadly cultural yet rigorous manner perfect for the undergraduate seminars from everywhere to the U.S.; and how the consequences and reinterpretations of we specialize in, closely reading and constellating texts both expected and the dawn of constitutional democracy in the United States have been circling the FACULTY & GRADUATE STUDENTS unexpected, from Tocqueville and Jefferson to Nietzsche, in order to examine globe ever since. An embodiment of this commitment, our new Atlantic History and the relationship between nonconformity and modern democracy. Continuing Politics M.A., which will send students to Oxford for a month in July 2021, launched “Harnessing Harmony,” Book Q&A to delve into the role of moral psychology in 19th- and 20th-century political this fall, fully enrolled. A global and transnational with Billy Coleman ......................................... 6 thought, Prof. Ikuta’s second, currently in-progress book will turn toward the To support this program and the Kinder Institute’s larger international enterprise, question of how willful ignorance has, over time, sustained racial injustice. view of history and politics was “Origin, Introduction, and Progress of it was crucial to attract an energetic historian of Great Britain, a field of scholarship The Haskell Monroe Collection: Life in Joining Jennie is the versatile Prof. Connor Ewing. A scholar of American which has been absent from the MU campus since a wave of retirements several as common in the imperial the Confederacy,” by Brendon Floyd.............. 8 politics and public law who has equal facility with the study of American years ago. To that end, we are proud to have recruited one of the most prolific young world of the 1700s that Ben political thought and development, constitutional theory and design, and scholars of the British Empire currently working, Prof. Robert S.G. Fletcher, from UNDERGRADUATES Supreme Court jurisprudence, Prof. Ewing’s first book project presents the University of Warwick. Trained at Oxford, Rob is a true historian of the Victorian Franklin, George Washington, 2020 Society of Fellows Conference Recap ... 11 a reconstruction of the theory of federalism that foregrounds how the Empire, in that the sun never sets on his far-ranging expertise. While his primary Introducing the Missouri Debate Union ....... 15 Thomas Jefferson and John Constitution structures contests over political authority and its location. avenue of research centers on British attempts to govern and transform the desert CAMPUS & COMMUNITY In addition to his scholarship, Connor has been organizing our Shawnee and nomadic societies of the 20th-century Middle East, Dr. Fletcher has also written Adams grew up in as it is Trail conference for the past few years from his former posts at UVA and a book on the British encounter with 19th-century Japan, in addition to producing Friday Colloquium Series intellectually current in the “The Other Fire Bell: African Americans University of Toronto, growing it from a friendly regional gathering of major work on British merchants in China, the administration of Western Australia, and the Long Shadow of the Missouri political thought scholars into a national conference spanning all of the and even the world history of locust control. Not only did Dr. Fletcher perform the “globalized” 2000s. In the Kinder Institute’s interest areas. He also brings an exciting track record research and writing for these projects, but he also in many cases secured funding for Compromise” .................................................. 16 Founding era, most Americans “‘Why not a woman?’ The Improbable of public engagement across a broad array of media, not only some of the them, all while running the graduate program in history at Warwick. Hired at the full Life of Eliza Lucas Pinckney” ........................ 17 channels that have so reshaped our world in the past few years, but also nicely professor level at a very young age, Rob brings a wide publication history with him were recent migrants, the updated versions of tried and true formats. Everyone reading this newsletter to Mizzou and, along with Jay Sexton and Kinder Junior Research Fellow at Oxford news came from London and James E. Fleming & Linda C. McClain should check out The New Rambler, an online review of books modeled after Sonia Tycko, will help coordinate the U.K. study abroad programs that we offer not Dr. Samuel Johnson’s famous 18th-century periodical that Connor created only at the graduate but also at the undergraduate level. Constitution Day Lecture Paris, and events of crucial with his partner, Prof. Cindy Ewing, a University of Toronto historian who “One Woman, One Vote: The Long Road While all of these international activities might seem to take us a world away from the not coincidentally joined the MU History Department this fall to teach Asian concern might at any time to Ratification of the 19th Amendment” ........ 19 18th- and 19th-century era of the Founders where we started this project, we see it and international history. An extremely significant addition to the university all as integrally related. A global and transnational view of history and politics was as have been playing out in in her own right, Cindy will be affiliated with the Kinder Institute, and her Kinder Forum: Continuing Conversations common in the imperial world of the 1700s that Ben Franklin, George Washington, groundbreaking work on diplomacy and constitutional discourse among the Poland or India. We embrace “The Many Failures and Great Success of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams grew up in as it is intellectually current in the nations of South and Southeast Asia connects astonishingly well with the new Winston Churchill,” by Kinder Institute Senior “globalized” 2000s. In the Founding era, most Americans were recent migrants, themes and activities being pursued by historians at the Kinder Institute and the belief that a global Fellow Lawrence Goldman ............................ 22 the news came from London and Paris, and events of crucial concern might at any in Read Hall. time have been playing out in Poland or India. We embrace the belief that a global perspective enriches our study NEWS IN BRIEF While he’ll be residing for the time being in Hulston Hall, Tommy Bennett, perspective enriches our study of early American history and political thought, which of early American history and a scholar of constitutional and administrative law with particular research remain our scholarly anchors, the focus of much of our public programming, and the interest in how complex litigation strains the relationship between state and subjects of the core curriculum for our new B.A. in Constitutional Democracy, which political thought... federal courts, joined the Kinder Institute in August as an Associate Professor includes seminars on “The Intellectual World of the American Founders,” “The of Constitutional Democracy and the MU Law School as an Associate Revolutionary Transformation of Early America,” “The Constitutional