Event
VIRTUAL: Ben Talks at Alumni Weekend - U.S. Democracy: In Crisis, at a Crossroads, or the New Normal?
Penn Arts & Sciences presents Ben Talks - U.S. Democracy: In Crisis, at a Crossroads, or the New Normal?
A global pandemic, unprecedented political polarization, battles over voting rights and racial justice. These circumstances have led many of us to think more deeply about the glue that holds us together as a society. Join faculty from Penn Arts & Sciences as they examine the state of American democracy in this special Alumni Weekend edition of the School’s famous Ben Talks series.
The in-person portion of this event is at capacity, but you can still register for the virtual option on the Alumni Weekend registration site.
Featured Speakers
Nancy Cordes, C'95, Chief White House Correspondent for CBS News
Nancy Cordes is based in Washington, D.C. and was previously the chief Congressional Correspondent for CBS News. She covered the January 6 attack on the Capitol, government shutdowns, and five Supreme Court confirmations, among many other major stories. She has been a major contributor to election coverage at CBS since 2008. Before joining CBS news, she was an ABC News correspondent based in New York, and has also reported from Honolulu. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Penn, and received a master's degree in public policy from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Marc Meredith, Associate Professor of Political Science
Marc Meredith examines the political economy of American elections, with a particular focus on the application of causal inference methods. His major research interests include election administration, election law, political campaigns, and voter decision-making. His research appears in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, among other outlets. He has a B.A. in economics and mathematical methods in the social sciences from Northwestern University, master’s degrees in economics from Northwestern University and in political science from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in political economics from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He holds a secondary appointment in the Wharton School.
Stephanie Perry, Executive Director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES) and the Fox Leadership Program
Prior to coming to Penn, Stephanie Perry served as the Manager of Polling for NBC News. In this role, she managed election polling for the NBC News division and ran the exit poll desk for NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo. She was previously an Associate Producer with NBC News Specials where she covered breaking news stories and special events. She has won three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story for the Boston Marathon Bombing, Malaysia Flight 17, and the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, as well as a Peabody Award for In Plain Sight: Poverty in America. Perry is a 2010 graduate from New York University with a B.A. in political journalism.
Modeled after the popular TED Talks, Ben Talks will give our acclaimed faculty the opportunity to deliver their "ideas worth sharing," bringing to life the innovative vision and future of Penn Arts & Sciences.