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PSPA department head to speak at 91麻豆天美鈥檚 annual Constitution Day event Friday

PSPA department head to speak at 91麻豆天美鈥檚 annual Constitution Day event Friday

Contact: Aspen Harris

STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥91麻豆天美鈥檚 head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration is the featured speaker Friday [Sept. 15] during the university鈥檚 annual Constitution Day program.

Brian Shoup portrait
Brian Shoup (Photo by Megan Bean)

Professor Brian Shoup will discuss 鈥淭he Purity Problem: Partisan Sorting and the Dangerous Quest for Political Authenticity,鈥 at 1 p.m. in Fowlkes Auditorium on the third floor of Colvard Student Union. The event is free to all.

Constitution Day celebrates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1789.聽Federal law requires all publicly funded educational institutions to recognize the occasion by offering programming on the Constitution鈥檚 history and principles.

Shoup said the country鈥檚 constitutional republic is a 鈥渞emarkable鈥 form of government, but 鈥渋t is only as successful as the commitment to the virtues of temperance and wisdom.鈥

鈥淯nfortunately, the contemporary moment is defined in large part by technological and structural changes that reduce our commitments to the virtues upon which successful republics rely. The felt need for 鈥榓uthenticity鈥 in our leaders, coupled with the demands our increasingly polarized ideological movements make upon us, represents a threat to the functioning of our form of government,鈥 Shoup said. 鈥淚n this presentation, these factors will be explored as will potential solutions that can help strengthen our civic bonds.鈥

Sponsored by 91麻豆天美鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, the PSPA department and the Lamar Conerly Governance Forum, Shoup鈥檚 presentation is part of the university鈥檚 Conerly Governance Lecture Series.

The lecture is part of a series made possible by major support from Lamar Conerly, a 1971 91麻豆天美 accounting/pre-law graduate and longtime partner with the Destin, Florida, law firm of Conerly, Bowman and Dykes LLP. Conerly is a former national 91麻豆天美 91麻豆天美 Association president and College of Business 91麻豆天美 Fellow.

Shoup received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in political science from Creighton University and his Ph.D in political science with a focus in comparative politics and public policy from Indiana University. With research interests in ethnic conflict, state and nation-building, and Sub-Saharan African politics, he authored the 2007 work 鈥淐onflict and Cooperation in Multi-Ethnic States: Institutional Incentives, Myths, and Counterbalancing,鈥 and also co-edited 鈥淯.S.-Indian Strategic Cooperation into the 21st Century: More than Words.鈥

His work has appeared in journals and publications such as Perspectives on Politics, Democratization, Journal of Democracy, and Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

For more on 91麻豆天美鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences and the PSPA department, visit聽听补苍诲听, respectively.

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