James Wright Convenes Nov. 10 Symposium on 'Challenges for the New President'

President James Wright will join alumni panelists with professional expertise in American politics for a symposium titled "Reflections on the 2008 Campaign: Challenges for the New President." The event will be held in Murdough Center's Cook Auditorium on Monday, Nov. 10, at 4:30 p.m.

"I began collecting political buttons in the 1960s when I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin," says President James Wright, whose collection is housed in his Parkhurst office. Wright says the button of Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat is a favorite (top center). (Photo by Joseph Mehling '69)

Wright, a scholar of American political history, will converse with alumni, including historians Annette Gordon-Reed '81, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Jim Kloppenberg '73, the Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard. Other panelists include the Reverend Leah Daughtry '84, chief of staff of the Democratic National Committee; Rob Portman '78, a former congressman (R-Ohio) who held two cabinet positions in the current Bush administration and who, according to media speculation, was considered for the GOP ticket as McCain's running mate; David Shribman '76, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and trustee emeritus; and Jacques Steinberg '88, a New York Times media reporter.

Linda Fowler, the Frank J. Reagan 1909 Professor in Policy Studies, will present opening remarks. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of the President and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Social Sciences.

Wright says, "I first taught a course in U.S. political history at Dartmouth a year after President Nixon's inauguration-his first inauguration!

"I am looking forward to this opportunity to sit down with a group whose individual accomplishments I admire so much. I knew some of them as students, and it will be a treat to reflect with them on this political campaign-and to speculate on its historical context."

By SARAH GOMEZ

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