Zoom registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HekUYrKBQLS_PY1pEIrS9A

Lecture Description: Join AltLiberalArts for an engaging webinar with Jonathan Becker, vice president for academic affairs and director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College, Yael Bromberg, constitutional rights litigator, leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and Erin Cannan, Bard College’s vice president for civic engagement, as they discuss key findings from the new book, Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses. The book examines powerful case studies from Tuskegee University, Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bard College, highlighting the critical role college communities have played in the struggle for voting rights. In this webinar, the speakers will offer unique insights into how students and institutions have shaped the fight for suffrage and contributed to the ongoing evolution of voting rights in the United States. This conversation is essential for anyone interested in civic engagement, democracy, higher education, and civil rights history.

Jonathan Becker is Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Director of the Center for Civic Engagement, and Professor of Political Studies at Bard College. He is  affiliated with the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program, Global and International Studies, Politics, and Russian and Eurasian Studies. His academic expertise centers on Russian and East European politics, media and politics, and comparative politics. Educated at McGill University (B.A.) and St. Antony’s College, Oxford University (D.Phil.), he has taught at Central European University, the University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Wesleyan University, and Yale University as well as Bard College.

Yael Bromberg, Esq., constitutional rights litigator, leading legal scholar of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and election law professor at American University Washington College of Law. A national expert on voting rights, her research and teaching focuses on democracy law, constitutional law, and the evolution of rights, with an emphasis on the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. Bromberg co-edited Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses. She previously wrote on the history and unfulfilled promise of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in articles published by the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, dubbed “a groundbreaking study,” and the Rutgers Law Review, for which she served as a faculty advisor for the first legal volume dedicated to the Twenty-Sixth Amendment since its ratification over fifty years ago. She is also the architect of the Youth Voting Rights Act, comprehensive legislation to enforce the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.

Erin Cannan is Vice President for Civic Engagement at Bard College, coordinates Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement’s local and international student initiatives, teaches courses on civic engagement and supervises Bard's career services. Erin has been part of the team fighting to secure Bard student's voting rights since 1998. In addition, she leads the Global Higher Education Alliance for the 21 Century's (GHEA21) international civic engagement initiative that includes student leadership training, community focused curriculum and institutional capacity building. Erin joined the Center staff after 15 years in the Division of Student Affairs at Bard where she served as Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. Her background in student affairs motivates her to connect the liberal arts and sciences with civic engagement to promote student well-being, learning and skill-building.