Stephanie Ternullo, Assistant Professor of Government, returned to her alma mater Amherst College to deliver the inaugural Cummings Lecture in the new Cummings Lecture Series.
Presented by the CHI and the Samuel B. Cummings Lecture Fund, the Cummings Lecture Series is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, and Classics. Each semester it will feature a speaker of distinction from one of the four disciplines, who can speak to issues of broad interest and relevance beyond the immediate fields of inquiry.
Stephanie delivered a talk titled “America’s Changing Political Geography”, which considered the historical causes and contemporary consequences of these shifts in political geography, and the challenges they present for both parties today – posing the question ‘How does place shape America’s polarized politics?’.
Decades of political-economic transformations have reshaped both the kinds of people and places that give their support to the Democratic and Republican Parties, hardening political boundaries along the lines of race, class, religion, and context. Working-class, ex-urban, and industrial communities that were once the bedrock of the Democratic Party are now the sites of greatest contestation every election cycle, while the affluent suburbs that once fomented conservative activism in the 1950s and 60s are the sites of greatest growth for the Democratic Party.
Stephanie’s research uses multiple methods to explore how social contexts shape Americans’ political behavior. Her first book, How the Heartland Went Red: Why Local Forces Matter in an Age of Nationalized Politics, takes up one piece of this, showing how place informs Americans’ partisan attachments through a comparative study of three White, postindustrial cities during the 2020 presidential election.
Speaking about her visit, Stephanie said: “It is always great to return to Amhurst College – I recently delivered a book talk in March earlier this year – but it was really fun to meet the undergraduates and talk to them about their professional goals and how to make sense of the election.
“I also really enjoyed meeting many of the new junior faculty. I had such an amazing experience during my time at Amherst, in large part because of the energetic and brilliant junior faculty, so it was great to see that the new faces are providing the same intellectual environment for the students today!”
You can find out more or buy a copy of Stephanie’s book How the Heartland Went Red: Why Local Forces Matter in an Age of Nationalized Politics here.