The Roosevelt Institute will host its first panel discussion of the semester and the second in a series of “Fireside Chats: Conversations in Politics and Culture” on Monday, April 18, at 4 p.m. in McInteer 150. The panel discussion will focus on providing a presidential election preview from several of Harding professors’ viewpoints.
The panel will feature Dr. Stephanie Eddleman, professor of English; Dr. Dan Oden, professor of Bible and ministry; Nathan Guy, professor of Bible and ministry; and Lori Klein, professor of history and political science.
According to senior Jennifer Wright, president of Harding’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institute, panel members were chosen based on their various opinions on the upcoming election year.
“We wanted a diverse panel, not one of one thought process,” Wright said. “We got people across campus of different disciplines and perspectives who will be able to talk eloquently about what they think and see.”
The Roosevelt Institute’s first discussion in the series of “Fireside Chats,” held last semester, focused on the relationship between media and politics. It featured a panel of two Arkansas publication editors, a state representative and a Harding professor.
Vice president of the Harding chapter of the Roosevelt Institute junior Sarah Littleton said the organization wanted to differentiate this semester’s discussion by creating a bigger focus on students and the Harding community.
“We wanted this discussion to be more Harding-based than the last discussion,” Littleton said. “This discussion will be more student-led. We thought having teachers with different perspectives would make it more personal.”
The panel discussion will be moderated by a student-member of the Roosevelt Institute, junior Seth Garcia, whereas last semester’s discussion was led by the organization’s faculty sponsor, Heath Carpenter, professor of English.
“Something that’s important on college campuses is engaging young people,” Wright said. “A lot of times it doesn’t feel like young people have much of a voice, so we are coming up with the questions and putting this on to make sure that we hear what we’re interested in hearing.”
Littleton said the Roosevelt Institute is hosting this discussion to help students become more politically and socially conscious.
“We hope this discussion will bring more awareness and different perspectives to get students educated and interested (in the election),” Littleton said.
The Roosevelt Institute is a national network with college-campus chapters all across the country. A former chapter of the Institute existed at Harding until 2012. Wright and Carpenter restarted Harding’s chapter last January.
“We’re hoping to be a club that is known for consistently creating public spaces for the kind of relevant social, political and cultural conversations that everyone expects and wants to have at a university,” Carpenter said. “We want to use all the talent and resources Harding has and host these conversations we think everyone is interested in.”
The panel discussion will be free and open to anyone who wants to attend. For more information about the Roosevelt Institute, contact Heath Carpenter at hcarpent@harding.edu or Jennifer Wright at jwright9@harding.edu.
