College of Charleston has been chosen to host the inaugural Colonial Academic Alliance Scholar Exchange, to be held on campus Sept. 28th and 29, 2015. William Mayer, a presidential elections scholar at Northeastern University, will deliver a keynote address titled “Why Trump?” in Wells Fargo Auditorium (Beatty Center/School of Business) on Sept. 28 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Presidential elections scholar William Mayer
He will also lecture to classes in Southern Politics and Strategic Communication Campaigns on Sept. 29.
Mayer is the author or co-author of 10 books, including “The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations” and “The Swing Voter in American Politics.” In every presidential election year since 1996, he has edited a set of original essays on the presidential nomination process, the most recent of which is “The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2012.” He has been called “the nation’s leading academic authority” on the presidential nomination process, and his research also includes the study of voting process, public opinion, and media and politics.
“We are thrilled to have William Mayer on campus to engage our students and faculty,” said Gibbs Knotts, chair of the Department of Political Science . “His work on swing voters and the increasingly front-loaded primary calendar have made important contributions to both the discipline of political science and to larger debates about our democracy and electoral systems.”
The Colonial Academic Alliance was founded in 2002 by the provosts of the universities of the Colonial Athletic Association. The Alliance also sponsors annual events such as the Undergraduate Research Conference and the Pedagogy Summit, among its major outreach endeavors.
