The Tom Cassidy Lecture presents New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie — "The Crisis of American Democracy"

The Tom Cassidy Lecture presents New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie in conversation with Bianca Williams, Matthew D. Branche Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Anthropology.

"The Crisis of American Democracy"

The United States faces a crisis of democracy. Tens of millions of Americans are disengaged from the political process. The political system itself is unresponsive to demands for fairness and economic security. And there is an organized movement working to unravel fundamental guarantees of dignity, equal rights, and equal citizenship.

This crisis is the product of decades of economic inequality and political dysfunction. It is also a product of structural flaws in our system, including a Constitution that is as much an obstacle to the construction of a more perfect union as it is a tool to achieve it. What would it look like to resolve our crisis of democracy? Do we still have the ability to make our political world anew? And where in American history can we find the resources, and the inspiration, to make the change that would put our democracy on the path to a better future?

Jamelle Bouie, a columnist for The New York Times, covers US politics with an eye toward the broad sweep of American history. As he did while chief political correspondent for Slate magazine, Bouie shares eye-opening perspectives on the events of the day that are rooted in a deep understanding of the American past.

Bouie has appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and NBC’s Meet the Press, and his work has appeared in TIME magazine, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. Bouie has also contributed essays to volumes such as "Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019" and "The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story."

In 2021, Bouie received the Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis Journalism, and in 2024 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science. In 2025, he received the Carey McWilliams Award for a major journalistic contribution to the public's understanding of politics from the American Political Science Association. He also received the Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy from the American Historical Association.

Sponsored by the Tom Cassidy Lecture Fund in association with the Viewpoint Exchange Series.

For more information, contact Jenn Berube Lord at jberube@bowdoin.edu or 207-725-3928.

Open to the public free of charge.

A livestream of this talk will be available on Bowdoin's live events website: https://www.bowdoin.edu/live.

 

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Co-hosted with: History, Sociology, Africana Studies, English, Communications and Public Affairs, Government and Legal Studies

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