Campbell Institute News

Why write a book that appears to be calling for greater self-focus, for the cultivation of more "inwardness," when we appear to have a surfeit of damaging self-centered introspection as it is? Because, Professor of History Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn says in her new book, "Ars Vitae," today’s self-obsession entails "a false kind of inwardness. It’s a sham, It’s not the real thing."

"The forces he is up against are much bigger than President Trump and are tectonic in nature. There are a set of forces that push us apart rather than bring us together," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. But, he adds, "I do think having a period of time for the country to experience the absence of the daily melodrama of the Trump presidency will help."

Steven White, assistant professor of political science, says one reason it's so hard to fire a police officer, even one who appears to have broken the law, is because there are so many opportunities for the officers and their unions to appeal. "It's not surprising that police unions want it to be harder to punish officers," White added.

"I thought at some point, reality would come back in for people and they would have a hard time balancing their motivations to stay consistent with their partisanship with what's going on on the ground," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science.  "That was wholly optimistic on my part."

"Each day we tolerate President Trump’s behavior we aren’t just humoring an incumbent who refuses to accept the election results. We are putting American citizens at risk," says University Professor Sean O'Keefe.

"White women have to disabuse themselves en masse of the notion that they are inherently good. They have to put themselves in harm’s way, disrupt the status quo of their own complicity in white supremacy and defer to those who are more vulnerable than themselves," writes Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science.

Under Biden, New York state could find itself having a much more responsive federal government, and a number of Democrats, not just Cuomo, could be among the beneficiaries, says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

"She writes in a way that makes her readers better thinkers, more reflective and self-aware, and she does so by showing the development of her own thinking—who her influences are, the sources from which she draws her wisdom, and how philosophy informs her understanding of herself, the culture, and the world in which she lives," reads a review of Professor Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn's book, "Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living."

University Professor Sean O'Keefe recently participated in a study by the National Academy of Public Administration on which agency was best to handle civil space traffic management. O’Keefe believes the Office of Space Commerce is best suited for the task.

"These baseless accusations of electoral fraud do a lot of damage to the public’s belief in the electoral system and in democracy itself," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science. "And that is extremely damaging to our democracy."

Assistant Professor of Political Science Steven White notes, "If Democrats win the two Senate races in Georgia, their odds of being able to pass the legislation in their platform [go] up dramatically."

"It may be the Democrats have yet to find the balance they need between the left wing of their party and the rest of it," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. "Biden struggled to balance these two camps. Republicans beat expectations, and with a more ‘presidential’ candidate at the top of the ticket, they could be well positioned in 2024."