Expertise on Politics, Religion and Gender Put Professor Deckman in Media Spotlight

Deckman participates in a Brookings Insitution event that discussed
the findings of the 2012 American Values Survey.

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Political science professor Melissa Deckman has been busy on the media circuit, sharing her expertise on how religion and gender are affecting voter attitudes in the presidential election through appearances on nationally broadcast panels and in interviews with radio and print journalists.

            At an October 22 event at the National Press Club in D.C., sponsored by Catholic University's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies and covered live by C-SPAN, she shared her research findings on the gender gap among Catholic voters. You can see C-SPAN video of her observations here.

            The following day, as an Affiliated Scholar with the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), she participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution to announce the results of PRRI’s “2012 American Values Survey,” the organization’s annual comprehensive look at how values and beliefs affect voting behaviors. Deckman addressed several key areas of the survey: the correlation between religious affiliation and support for Romney or Obama, perceptions about the state of religious freedom in the U.S., and Tea Party opinions on social issues. Video of the event is available on the Brookings Institution Web site (Deckman’s segment begins about an hour into the video).

            Most recently, she was videotaped talking about religion’s impact on the presidential election for a segment of the PBS show “Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly,” which is scheduled to air on PBS stations across the country starting Sunday morning, Nov. 4.  (The show is carried locally on MPT2 that day at 6:30 a.m. and on Washington-based WETA at 10:30 a.m. For other station schedules, visit the show’s website.)

            She also appeared on Baltimore’s WYPR radio to discuss the election with Midday Show host Dan Rodricks, and was quoted in a piece by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Baer.

            “This election season has been busier than usual because being an Affiliated Scholar with the Public Religion Research Institute has brought exciting new opportunities,” says Deckman, who is the College’s Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs. “As someone who has studied political behavior for a long time, I’ve enjoyed sharing my knowledge in these different settings.”

Appearing as part of an event at the National Press Club, Deckman
discussed Catholics and the gender gap in presidential politics.

Professor Deckman Named "Affiliated Scholar" At the Public Religion Research Institute

WASHINGTON, DC – Dr. Melissa Deckman, chair of the political science department at Washington College, is one of five “leading academic voices” named as the first Affiliated Scholars of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). She will regularly contribute insights to the Institute’s “Faith in the Numbers” research blog and will work with its senior researchers on peer-review articles.

Founded in 2009 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Public Religion Research Institute has become a leading resource for non-partisan analysis of the role of religion in public and political life and the opinions that members of religious communities hold about topical issues. The creation of the Affiliated Scholars Program enhances the Institute’s ability to provide perspective on the 2012 presidential election and the role religion and religious groups will play in shaping its outcome.

Deckman says PRRI is quickly establishing itself as a major source for news and analysis and she is excited about her new relationship with the organization.  “As a scholar of religion and politics, I am grateful to have access to their excellent survey data, especially as we gear up for an exciting presidential election race this fall.”

The Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs at Washington College, Deckman has written or co-written three books and contributed to dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters. Her 2004 book, School Board Battles: The Christian Right in Local Politics, won the American Political Science Association’s Hubert Morken Award for the best work on religion and politics.  She edited a forthcoming volume about the politics of teaching the Bible and religion in public schools (slated for publication this fall), and her current research focuses on the nexus between gender and religion in the Tea Party movement.

Joining Deckman as 2012-2013 Affiliated Scholars at PRRI are Paul Djupe, associate professor of political science at Denison College and co-editor of the Cambridge Journal of Politics & Religion; Kerem Ozan Kalkan, incoming visiting assistant professor of political science at Stony Brook University; Laura R. Olson, professor of political science at Clemson University and editor-in-chief of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; and Mark J. Rozell, professor of public policy at George Mason University.

Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI, says the Institute is “thrilled to be able to provide not only additional original research but also more timely insights for better understanding the role of religion in this fall’s presidential election.” To learn about the Institute and its new Affiliated Scholars Program, visit www.publicreligion.org.

Read her first blog posting, "How an Evangelical College’s Lawsuit Could Help Romney."

Starr Center's New York Times Series Separates Fact from Fiction in Political Claims on History

CHESTERTOWN, MD—In an unprecedented journalistic partnership with one of the world’s foremost media outlets, faculty and students at Washington College have created a new online feature in The New York Times that will keep watch over the ways politicians and special interest groups use and misuse history. The series, which is titled Historically Corrected, launched on Sunday, July 8, with a broadside aimed at both Democrats and Republicans, casting significant doubt on claims that both President Obama and his opponent, Mitt Romney, have recently made on the campaign trail.

“History is often the language of American politics,” says Adam Goodheart, director of the College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, which is spearheading the project. “But whether it’s Democrats harking back to the New Deal or Republicans claiming the mantle of the founding fathers, fact and fiction are often much too easily confused.”

For instance, Mr. Obama’s standard stump speech usually hails past achievements such as Hoover Dam as examples of how Americans “built this country together.” But this week’s column reveals that the dam’s construction in the 1930s was far from what one might call a “kumbaya” moment. Washington College undergraduate Kathy Thornton, part of the faculty-student research team at work on Historically Corrected, unearthed a 1932 newspaper article documenting protests against policies banning Asian-American laborers from working on the site, while African Americans were relegated to a few menial jobs.

Meanwhile, Mr. Romney recently gave a speech celebrating the United States as “unique” and “exceptional in the history of the world” as the only nation that has never taken land through war. But as the Historically Corrected team points out, he made the comment in San Diego – which itself was seized by a U.S. force in 1846, invading what was then part of Mexico.

Co-directing the project with Goodheart is journalist and historian Manseau, a scholar-in-residence at the Starr Center. Beginning with a handpicked group of student associates this summer, the project will expand in the fall when Manseau’s “Writing for the Media” course will serve as a “newsroom” allowing students to track down leads, hone their fact-checking skills, and pitch topics for the series just as they might do one day at newspapers or television networks. “Working on a project affiliated with the New York Times is unbeatable real-world experience for any aspiring journalist,” Manseau says. “Students will come away from Historically Corrected with a better sense of how news and other media are created today, and the role they might play in that process.” 

With tens of millions of unique visitors per month, the newspaper’s Web site is one of the most-read media outlets in the world. Historically Corrected will run several times per month under the rubric of the Campaign Stops blog, one of the Times’ most high-profile online series. A condensed version of this week’s inaugural column also appears in the Sunday, July 8 print edition of the Times.

“The Times is excited to be able to include in our pages and online this valuable contribution to the political discussion,” says Clay Risen, senior editor in the paper’s Op-Ed department, which will oversee the series. “We expect that Adam Goodheart, Peter Manseau and the rest of the Washington College team will offer our readers a unique insight into American history, ironically via a medium — the Internet — that has only recently made such perspectives so quickly and widely available.”

Washington College president Mitchell B. Reiss sees the project as “a wonderful opportunity for our students to be engaged at the intersection of history and politics in a meaningful way. They will be learning from some of the finest historians in the nation, and their research will support journalism on one of the most widely read and influential Web sites in the world,” he adds.  “Adam and Peter are illustrating yet again how the work of the Starr Center can bridge the past and present and bring the insights of history to the forefront of the national dialogue.” 

Unlike existing fact-checking sites that simply declare a statement to be true or false, Historically Corrected is designed to encourage nuanced interpretation, discussion, and debate among readers. Nationally distinguished scholars will contribute comments to spark the discussions. The initial group of participating historians includes Richard Beeman of the University of Pennsylvania, the biographer and journalist Richard Brookhiser, and Ted Widmer of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, along with Washington College professors Melissa Deckman, Joseph Prud’homme, and Richard Striner.

“Readers will be encouraged to join the debate in the comments section and through social media,” Goodheart adds, “and the column will also offer a window into the past by providing primary sources—documents, letters, and images—gathered by Washington College students.”

This examination of how history is incorporated into today’s politics is at the heart of the mission of the Starr Center, which was founded in 2000 to encourage new approaches to studying American history, to draw connections between the past and present, and to make the work of first-rate historians accessible and inviting to the general public. The Center also creates unique opportunities for Washington College students both on-campus and far beyond; in addition to the new Times endeavor, it has developed longstanding partnerships with the Smithsonian, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and other nationally eminent institutions.

Goodheart, who serves as the Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the Center, is a historian, essayist and journalist. His recent book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening, was a national bestseller. A frequent contributor to the acclaimed New York Times online Civil War series  Disunion, he also contributes to numerous national publications, including Slate, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Smithsonian, and the New York Times Magazine. 

Manseau, the Center’s scholar-in-residence, is the author of several books on history and religion, including Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead and Vows: The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son, as well as the award-winning historical novel Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter. Manseau has written for publications including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, and is currently at work on a book about the forgotten influence of religious minorities in American history.

For more information on the Historically Corrected project and its research and writing team, visit http://www.washcoll.edu/historically-corrected.

Project directors Adam Goodheart, left, and Peter Manseau, right, discuss
the first installment of Historically Corrected with student assistants
Maegan Clearwood and Kaitlin Tabeling.

Washington College Taps Beloit Economist and Administrator As New Provost and Dean

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College has named Emily Chamlee-Wright as its new Provost and Dean. Chamlee-Wright currently serves as Associate Dean at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where she also teaches economics and directs the Miller Upton Programs on the Wealth and Well-being of Nations.

Washington College president Mitchell B. Reiss says Chamlee-Wright stood out among a remarkably strong field of candidates because of her strengths as both a scholar and an administrator. “It is clear that Dr. Chamlee-Wright understands what it takes to be a great teacher and scholar, and what it takes to be a great liberal-arts college in the 21st century,” he adds. “She impressed us all with her passion for engaged learning, both in the classroom and in the field. In these challenging economic times, we also value her experience in bringing financial stability and sustainability to high-quality academic programs and in expanding summer programs at Beloit. Her talents, energy and creativity will help us move Washington College forward in significant ways.”

Associate Professor of Politics Melissa Deckman, who chaired the search committee that unanimously endorsed Chamlee-Wright for the position, says the students, faculty and staff who met with the candidate on campus in mid- February were struck with her high level of enthusiasm. “She was dynamic and approachable and generated lots of good ideas,” says Deckman. “Both on paper and in person, Dr. Chamlee-Wright evidenced a wonderful balance of confidence and humility, leadership skills and collegiality. She takes a holistic view of scholarship and teaching, and the College community appreciated her big-picture approach to building and sustaining an engaging learning environment for students.”

Chamlee-Wright says she was attracted to Washington College in part by its commitment to interdisciplinary and integrative learning, and also by the widespread confidence in its mission. “It was clear to me that the board of trustees, the administration, the faculty and the staff are unapologetically ambitious on behalf of the College and on behalf of the liberal arts,” she says. “Washington College offers students the ideas, investigative skills, and creative foundations necessary to navigate unchartered territory and then expects them to engage in genuine discovery. This is the kind of education that is truly emancipating.”

Chamlee-Wright grew up in northern Virginia and spent summers sailing the Chesapeake Bay with her family. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, where she also received her master’s and bachelor’s degrees. Her academic research combines her expertise in economics with her skills as an ethnographer, focusing on the interplay of cultural and economic processes. “My primary interest is to understand how cultural and economic processes combine to foster widespread social coordination. What allows society to achieve a level of ‘social intelligence’ that no individual could ever design?” In recent years, she has turned this question in the direction of examining how communities rebound—or fail to rebound—in the aftermath of catastrophic disaster, with particular emphasis on post-Katrina recovery in New Orleans.

Chamlee-Wright is the author of three books: The Cultural and Political Economy of Recovery: Social Learning in a Post-Disaster Environment (Routledge 2010), Culture and Enterprise: The Development, Representation, and Morality of Business, with Don Lavoie (Routledge 2000), and The Cultural Foundations of Economic Development (Routledge 1997). She is also co-editor of The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Development (Edward Elgar 2010) and a manuscript titled How We Came Back: Voices from Post-Katrina New Orleans, which is under review for publication.

A former W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow, she received the Underkoffler Award for Excellence in Teaching at Beloit in 1997. As Associate Dean at Beloit, she has worked with colleagues to expand summer programs, oversee campus museums (Wright Museum of Art and Logan Anthropology Museum), advance faculty development, and promote the performing arts.

Chamlee-Wright will be moving to Chestertown with her husband, Brian, and two daughters, Linden, 11, and Cailin, 9, over the summer and will start her new job in July.

Professor Deckman Offers Political Analysis at D.C. Panel On Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

WASHINGTON, DC—Washington College professor Melissa Deckman was a panelist at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, June 9, to discuss the results of a major new study that examined attitudes about abortion and support for same-sex marriage among the millennial generation.

Deckman, an associate professor of political science, says millennials, like their parents before them, hold conflicted and often contradictory attitudes about abortion, but are much more supportive of gay marriage than prior generations. The new study, sponsored by the Public Religious Research Institute, considered how religion, education, partisanship, and where a person resides (region and urban/rural divides) factor into this decision.

Deckman says the study broke new ground in finding that levels of support for access to abortion—the notion that at least some health-care professionals in their communities should provide legal abortion—is highest among the millennial generation. Sixty eight percent of millennials say that there should be access to abortion services, yet just 60 percent say it should be legal in most circumstances. “This finding suggests that traditional measures of support for abortion rights may not fully capture how all millennials feel about abortion,” she says.

The study also considered some unique factors in its analysis, such as whether viewing MTV’s reality show about unmarried pregnant teenagers, Teen Mom, impacted views on abortion (yes, it has a positive impact on support for the legality of abortions); and whether seeing an ultrasound impacts views on abortion (yes, it has a negative impact on support for its legality).

Deckman reports that, all told, the study confirms that abortion attitudes have remained fairly consistent over the past four decades. But despite this consistency and the fact that a slight majority of Americans favor the legalization of abortion in most circumstances, pro-life activists have been increasingly successful in restricting access to abortion through state legislative policy. “Pro-lifers are three times more likely than pro-choice supporters to say that abortion is a critical issue for them,” she told the panel audience. “They’re highly motivated. They recruit candidates and become legally and politically savvy. They help promote legislation,” she said.

When it comes to same-sex marriage, the PRRI survey showed the millennials to be much more supportive on this issue than older age groups. Fifty-seven percent of 18-to-29-year-olds favor same-sex marriage, making them the only age group to give the idea majority support. Another 19 percent of millennials support civil unions among gays.

Among other age groups, support for gay marriage declines as age increases: 42 percent of people ages 30 to 49 support it; but the percentage drops to 32 percent of those ages 50 to 64, and 26 percent of seniors 65 and older. “While it is not surprising that younger Americans are more liberal on gay marriage,” says Deckman, “it is important to remember that views on this issue are also colored by religious belief. For many conservative, devout Americans, opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage continue to motivate their political choices.”

The panel discussion was moderated by Brookings Senior Fellow E.J. Dionne, Jr., and also featured Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI and principal researcher on the survey, and Karlyn Bowman, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Video highlights and full audio from the June 9 event, are posted at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2011/0609_values_millennials.aspx

Politics Of Women Clergy Topic For Tea & Talk Series, January 26

Chestertown, MD, January 15, 2004 — The Rose O'Neill Tea & Talk Series and the Gender Studies Program at Washington College present “Women with a Mission: Gender, Religion, and the Politics of Women Clergy,” a lecture by Melissa Deckman, assistant professor of political science, Monday, January 26 at the O'Neill Literary House. The event is free and all are welcomed to enjoy tea, conviviality and discussion. Tea served at 4 p.m., talk begins at 4:30.

While it took many generations of struggle before women gained formal acceptance into the male-dominated ministry and rabbinate, the pulpit has recently become more hospitable to women, asserts Deckman, and as their numbers grow, women clergy are coming to exert an increasingly visible political presence in the United States. Her lecture will focus on the story of women clergy's encounters with politics, demonstrating how gender, professional status, and religion can affect citizens' political attitudes and behavior.

“I argue that the combination of gender, minority professional status, and the nature of the religious traditions that ordain women act together to move women clergy ideologically toward the political left,” says Deckman. “Ironically, though, these same factors can combine to make it difficult and potentially risky for women clergy to engage in visible action on controversial issues, but many do act, even on controversial issues such as gay rights and abortion. The ways that these women navigate the nexus of congregational ministry, community leadership, and prophetic political teaching is making a greater impact on American politics, both through their actions and through their influence on the beliefs and actions of the many American citizens who attend their congregations.”

The Rose O'Neill Tea & Talk Series showcases the research, writing and talent of Washington College's faculty and is held in the College's O'Neill Literary House. Established in 1985, the Literary House was acquired and refurbished through a generous gift of alumna Betty Casey, Class of 1947, and her late husband Eugene, in memory of his late mother, Rose O'Neill Casey. Now approaching its 20th anniversary, the O'Neill Literary House is a large, eclectic Victorian home that reflects the spirit of Washington College's creative writing culture.