Hi everyone! I'm Tess, and I live 30 minutes outside of London. I love everything Dartmouth, including the sunsets, the traditions, the classes, and the merch. I'm super excited to experience everything I read about in this blog over the next four years. Come along with me as I explore the ins and outs of life in the woods.
A course that definitely surprised me, I did not know what to expect and had very little philosophical knowledge before taking this course. It was a mixture of current and past readings, with the final project to make a group video, testing my technological ability. Professor Bumpus was amazing, and I got to know her more when I took her to breakfast at Pine through the Take Your Professor to Lunch Program.
I was recommended to take a history course, specifically a history course with Professor Lu, and it has not disappointed! This course is cross listed with Asian Studies, my major, but it has made me consider a history minor... We start every class off with a song relating to the topic of that class, and then we move on to discussion based activities.
Throughout my time so far at Dartmouth, I have made it my goal to attend as many talks as possible, ranging from discussions with travel-writers to speeches by former Vice Presidents. Speakers are brought to campus by different groups including the Political Economy Project, the Dickey Center for International Understanding, and the Dartmouth Political Union. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policies brought speakers from across the political spectrum, with a wide variety of occupations, to campus for the 2024 Election Speaker Series.
introducing the Speaker Series
The first Election Series talk that I attended was given by Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Adviser of the US. He talked about foreign policy, the Obama administration, and the world as it is. This was incredibly interesting, as I was able to connect what he talked about with my recent reading of 'Red Line' by Joby Warrick.
Elbridge Colby, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under Trump in his first term, talked extensively about the threat of China, and going forward how the US should respond to it. He was interviewed by my International Politics (GOV 5) Professor Jennifer Lind, and in our next class we had a seminar about the talk. I was able to connect different concepts of realism and liberalism that I had learnt from the class to examples that he gave.
One of the highlights of the Election Speaker Series was former Vice President Mike Pence visiting campus. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this talk as pretty much the entire school was interested in attending, and the tickets rapidly ran out.
Legal scholars Jeannie Suk Gersen, Keith Whittington, and Sonu Bedi gave a panel on the future of the Supreme Court. This was the first talk in this series to feature multiple speakers, and the debate between them was fascinating.
Finally, Harry Enten, Dartmouth '11 graduate, former analyst for FiveThirtyEight and current senior writer for CNN gave a post-election view of the polls, stating that no one should have been surprised by the results. His dry humor made the talk that much more enjoyable and engaging. The analysis post-election was incredibly interesting, and he gave several anecdotes from his time at Dartmouth.
Each talk is open to Dartmouth students and faculty, as well as the general public. For those that are unable to attend in person, live streams are available. We are always encouraged to register; however, most talks have seating available even if we don't (I often forget, so I would know). Following the interviewer asking questions, it turns to the audience, with priority given to students to ask questions. All in all, I would definitely say that attending these talks beyond the classroom allowed me to see the election from different angles and perspectives, stimulating conversations with those I attended with.
