Events

The nation’s supreme law was largely silent on who would be allowed to vote in the new nation, as well as on who would count those votes. Article 2, Section 1 states that “each state shall appoint [Electors], in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,” but it offers no guidance on how the members of those state legislatures would be elected. The result was significant diversity in who got to vote and how they voted.

Changes over the course of the nineteenth century in how Americans voted, from voice vote to public ballot box to private voting booth, also saw changes in the material culture that surrounded voting. Ballots and ballot boxes, campaign pins and ribbons, blank lists and pre-printed party tickets, lanterns and banners–the creative forces of the American print industry filled the country’s cities and small towns with the ephemera of electioneering.

As you look at the items in this exhibit, think about what they tell us about how Americans in the past felt about voting, and about how voting felt. How did Election Days feel when they were full of parades and music and public drinking? What was it like to vote when everyone around you knew who you voted for? And, most of all, who counted as a voter, and who did the counting?

In his essay, “Education as a Space to Change Your Mind,” philosopher Troy Jollimore reminds us of Socrates’ commitment to open-mindedness: “It requires that we work toward developing a sense of the world as a vast and complex place that we can, and ought to, continue to learn about for the rest of our lives.”

Offered in this spirit of intellectual humility, to support the principles of academic freedom, and to develop a campus climate comfortable with hearing different well-informed points of view, even those counter to one’s own views, the lunchtime series will take place on the Diag throughout the Fall. U-M Students, staff, and faculty can sign up in advance to request an opportunity to speak on select topics for 3-5 minutes. Or they can simply come to listen and learn. These events are co-sponsored by the Faculty Senate Office, the Center for Democracy & Civic Empowerment, the Ginsberg Center, Open Inquiry: Talking Maize & Blue, and Central Student Government.

The evening centers on Nwanevu's new book, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, which argues that America's democratic troubles run deeper than any single election. The real problem, Nwanevu contends, lies in institutions that were never designed to let majorities govern, and in an economy that keeps power far from ordinary people.

Anderson, one of the country's most influential political philosophers, brings her own work on democracy, equality, and the workplace to the exchange. Together they take up the questions this election season keeps surfacing. Who really holds power in America? Why do so many people feel unheard, and what would it take to build a democracy worthy of the name?

The conversation is free and open to students, faculty, and the broader Ann Arbor community, with time for audience questions.


Schedule

Graduate student workshop with Osita
Central Campus, room sent to registrants.
2:00 to 3:30 pm
Sign up:

RVSP Form

Main Event
Friday, October 9, 2026
Ross School of Business, Robertson Auditorium
5:30 pm Doors open, light refreshments and Literati book sales in the lobby.
6:00 pm The program begins, including questions and answers at the end.
7:30 pm Refreshments and book signing / sales in the lobby until 8:00 pm.

RSVP -- free, but please sign up to help us plan refreshments:

RVSP Form


Sponsors and Partners
U-M Department of Philosophy; Energy Club at Ross; Rackham Graduate School; Poverty Solutions; Business+Impact at Ross; Wallace House; Institute for the Humanities; U-M Department of History; Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies; U-M Department of English Language & Literature; Ford School of Public Policy; Center for Positive Organizations; Center for Political Studies; U-M Department of Political Science; Michigan Law; the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program; Science, Technology & Society; Science, Technology & Public Policy at the Ford School; the Erb Institute; Net Impact; U-M Department of Sociology, and Department of Afroamerican and African Studies.

In his essay, “Education as a Space to Change Your Mind,” philosopher Troy Jollimore reminds us of Socrates’ commitment to open-mindedness: “It requires that we work toward developing a sense of the world as a vast and complex place that we can, and ought to, continue to learn about for the rest of our lives.”

Offered in this spirit of intellectual humility, to support the principles of academic freedom, and to develop a campus climate comfortable with hearing different well-informed points of view, even those counter to one’s own views, the lunchtime series will take place on the Diag throughout the Fall. U-M Students, staff, and faculty can sign up in advance to request an opportunity to speak on select topics for 3-5 minutes. Or they can simply come to listen and learn. These events are co-sponsored by the Faculty Senate Office, the Center for Democracy & Civic Empowerment, the Ginsberg Center, Open Inquiry: Talking Maize & Blue, and Central Student Government.