Dear Friends of the Citrin Center,
Dear Friends of the Citrin Center,
We begin by expressing our hope that you and your families are keeping well through this difficult period of the pandemic. As you know, this forced the Center to present all events remotely. Happily, with the cooperation of the speakers and our staff, we were able to organize four successful events, each of which attracted a large audience.
Perhaps the highlight of the fall was the 2020 Citrin Award Lecture, “The Upswing” delivered by Professor Robert Putnam of Harvard University. More than 200 people listened in to Professor Putnam’s discussion of his new and highly relevant book.
Three other panels spoke to the central issues of national politics:
- “Race and Public Opinion: Today in Historical Perspective.”
- The Last Ten Days: Countdown to the 2020 Vote.”
- Post-Mortem: Why It Happened and the Implications for American Democracy”
Each of these events was video-recorded and can be viewed through the Center website: citrincenter.berkeley.edu.
Spring Programming
Again this spring’s events will be webinars and you will be receiving regular notifications and flyers about the participants, schedules, registration, and access. The panels are:
- “The Future of the Republican Party after the Trump Presidency.”
- “Free Speech and Academic Freedom: Opinion, Policy, and What Is to Be Done.”
- “President Biden’s First 100 Days: An Assessment.”
In the 2021-22 Academic Year, we hope to return to in-person events on campus but these will also be streamed so that people unable to attend can have access. Fall 2021 will feature the 2021 Citrin Award Lecture by Professor Diana Mutz of the University of Pennsylvania and in the spring the annual Citrin Conference will be held on the topic “Is Misinformation a Threat to American Democracy?”
Graduate Student Participation
The Center is expanding its support of graduate student research. Beginning this spring, an incoming graduate student (s) with interests close to the mission of the Center will be named a Citrin Fellow and be awarded research support to be used during their years in the Berkeley graduate program. In addition, in the fall, we will be accepting new applications for research grants from students already at Berkeley. The results of these projects will be presented in reports posted on the website.
Thanks
All these activities are made possible by your interest and support. We thank all of you for your engagement in Citrin Center events and for the ongoing financial support we have received.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Lenz,
Chair, Faculty Executive Committee