John Geer
Vanderbilt University
The Bruce R. Andrews Lecture
Attacking Democracy
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.
Live Stream Link
Conventional wisdom says negative political attacks undermine democracy. This lecture will argue, instead, that “attack politics” advance democratic governance.
The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Bruce R. Andrews Fund and the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.
Biography (provided by the speaker)
John G. Geer is vice provost for Academic and Strategic Affairs at Vanderbilt Universit
y, interim dean of the Graduate School, and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science. He earned his Ph.D. in 1986 from Princeton University. Geer is past editor of The Journal of Politics. Geer has published widely on campaigns, elections, and public opinion. He is author of In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns, which won Harvard University’s Goldsmith Prize in 2008. Geer has recently published the third edition of Gateways to Democracy (2015). He has provided extensive commentary in the news media about American politics, including live nationwide interviews for FOX, CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, and NPR. Read more













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