Historian Alexander Keyssar to Give2012 Constitution Day Lecture at Swarthmore College

Noted author and historian Alexander Keyssar will examine issues of voting rights and voter suppression in America as the 2012 Constitution Day and Gilbert Lecture speaker at Swarthmore College on Fri., Sept. 14, at 4:30 p.m. on campus in the Lang Performing Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

"The history of the right to vote in the United States has not been one of steady movement toward inclusion," says Richter Professor of Political Science Carol Nackenoff. "The topic is especially timely for 2012, when a number of laws requiring state-issued voter identification cards are being challenged in the courts."

Alexander Keyssar is the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His book, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2009), was honored by both the American Historical Association and the Historical Society and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Keyssar is an authority on voting, elections, and election reform. He writes frequently for the popular press about American politics and history.

The event is sponsored by the President's Office, the Department of Political Science, the Black Studies Program, and the Center for Social and Policy Studies.