Beyond Your News Feed: Understanding Contemporary Politics

Host William Hudson is joined by Professor Andrea McDonnell, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of PC’s Communication Program to discuss her new research. Dr. McDonnell has been a guest on this podcast previously to discuss the decline of local news and her 2023 book A Gossip Politic. In today’s podcast she discusses her more recent work on what she calls "discursive self-cleaving," a rhetorical strategy celebrities employ to counter accusations of sexual misconduct. In a forthcoming book, she takes an in depth look at the way three celebrities have deployed this strategy to protect themselves from such accusations. Among the three is former president Donald Trump, a master of discursive self-cleaving, who will be the focus of our conversation. Our conversation shows how various developments in communications in the 21st century, a post-truth information eco-system, bullshitting, and public gaslighting, have enabled this strategy. We conclude with comments on how Trump has expanded discursive self-cleaving from being a response to allegations of sexual misconduct to a routine tool in campaign image making.

Although most of us associate the People’s Republic of China (the PRC) with its officially sanctioned atheism, the government tolerates a variety of religious practice within the country. Regulating and controlling religious practice to assure that it does not pose a threat to the dominance of either the Chinese state or the ruling Chinese Communist Party is an on-going challenge to both party and state. Professor Susan McCarthy, the PC political science department’s China expert and a leading authority on ethnic and religious minorities in China, has returned to Beyond Your News Feed to discuss recent developments in the PRC’s efforts to regulate religious practice. Our discussion centers around two of Dr. McCarthy’s recent papers on the topic: “Liberating Party Animals: Cultural Governance and ‘Life Release’ Rituals in China” published in July 2022 in The China Journal and a yet unpublished paper: “Sinicizing China’s World Muslim City: Spatial Politics, National Narratives, and Ethno-Religious Assimilation in the PRC”.

This episode features, Zachariah Wheeler, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Providence College. We discuss his research on the evolution in coalitions within the Democratic Party, how elite discourse about class, race, climate change, and other issues have shaped those coalitions, and the way these changes reflect the impact neo-liberal ideology and globalization has had on American politics and culture. A main focus of our conversation is his recent paper entitled “The ‘Emerging Democratic Majority’, New Class Divisions, and the Meritocratic Left.”

This episode features Gizem Zencirci, Associate Professor of Political Science and her new book: The Muslim Social: Neoliberalism, Charity, and Poverty in Turkey published by Syracuse University Press. In this book, she explains how Turkey’s ruling party and other Turkish actors have melded modern neo-liberal reforms and traditional understandings of Islamic charity to create a form of public welfare provision that she calls the “Muslim social.” We discuss her new book and its intriguing argument.

Professors Joe Cammarano and Adam Myers join Beyond Your News Feed host William Hudson for a wide-ranging conversation about the 2024 presidential election campaigns. We examine the challenges both the Biden and Trump campaigns will face in earning the votes of Americans. Our analysis includes an assessment of what is at stake for the future of American democracy in this election.

Host William Hudson discusses the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis with two political science colleagues who are experts on Israel and its long conflict with the Palestinians.  We focus on how Americans have reacted to the conflict, particularly the American Jewish community.

Professor Adam Myers joins host William Hudson to discuss federalism’s impact on American democracy. Jacob M. Grumbach’s recent book: Laboratories against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics offers the touchstone for this discussion. Grumbach addresses a perennial issue in the analysis of American politics – whether the federal system advances or undermines democratic values. Our discussion examines and critiques Grumbach’s thesis as well as looking at recent arguments claiming federalism can advance progressive values.

This episode features a conversation with the Providence College Political Science Department’s Chinese politics expert, Professor Susan McCarthy. For several months, now, China has been in the news a lot whether in reports on the Chinese regime’s response to COVID, authoritarian crackdowns on political dissidents and ethnic minorities, the recent Party Congress that extended President Xi’s term in office, worsening tension, both diplomatic and military, between the US and China, and, finally, the infamous Chinese balloon caper. Our conversation brings Professor McCarthy expertise to bear on media coverage of these issues.

For this episode, we were pleased to welcome to Beyond Your News Feed the newest member of the PC Political Science faculty Assistant Professor Sara Hassani. Dr. Hassani joined the faculty last fall after completing her PH.D. at the New School for Social Research. She as a joint appointment in Political Science and Women’s Studies. In our conversation we talked about the courses she has taught so far and her experience so far at PC. We delved deeply into her fascinating research on female self-immolation as a form of political protest in the “Persian Belt”. We also discuss her insights into the current on-going protests in Iran.