The UCI Center for the study of Democracy presents

"8th Annual California Graduate Student Democracy Conference"

Saturday, May 12, 2012
9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway (SBSG), Room 1517

Schedule
9:00–9:30 a.m.    
Registration and Breakfast

9:30–11:45 a.m.    
Panel 1: Institutional Design and Composition in Developing Democracies

• Chair and Discussant: Dorie Solinger (UCI Political Science)
• Joshua Malnight (UC Irvine) “Argentina’s Pension Nationalization”
• Ryan Shirah (UC Irvine) “The Lasting Effects of Competitive Authoritarianism”  
• John Cuffe (UC Irvine) “Autonomy Retraction and Secessionist Conflict” 
• Robert Nyenhuis (UC Irvine) “The Re-election of Repression in Latin America: Fraud, Despair and Wishful Thinking”
   
• Discussant: Michael McBride (UCI Economics) and Katie Bolzendahl (UCI Sociology)

12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
Lunch & Keynote Address by Benjamin J. Hubbard, Professor Emeritus, Comparative Religion, California State University, Fullerton, “The Religion Factor in the Presidential Campaign"

Hubbard has taught courses on Jewish studies, Biblical studies, world religions, and religion and media studies for the past 27 years, 15 of them as department chair, at California State University, Fullerton. He has authored or edited a number of books and scholarly articles including America’s Religions—An   Educators Guide to Beliefs and Practices (with James Santucci and John Hatfield) (1997); The Abraham Connection—A Jew, Christian and Muslim in Dialogue (1994); and Reporting Religion—Facts and Faith (1990). A revised and expanded version of America’s Religions, An Educator’s Classroom Guide to America’s Religious Beliefs and Practices, was published in 2007. Hubbard has been a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the Orange County Register, Newport-Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, and Los Angeles Times, where he once wrote a regular column on religion. He was associate editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle in 1982-83. He is currently chair of the Religious Diversity Institute, an Orange-County based interfaith organization, and a board member of the American Jewish Committee, OC chapter. Hubbard received the Distinguished Professor Award in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Cal State in 1993 and the John Cronquist Memorial Award as Outstanding University Mentor in 1999.  

1:30–3:30 p.m.    
Panel 2:  Political Representation and Direct Democracy in the U.S. and Canada

• Chair and Discussant: Tony Smith (UCI Political Science)
• Todd Spanier (UC Irvine) “Open Government Initiatives in the U.S. and Canada”
• Jennifer Garcia (UC Irvine) “Latino Representation in the U.S. House of Representatives”  
• Misty Knight-Rini (UC Irvine) “Participation in the U.S. 2008 Election”
• Discussants: Tony McGann (UCI Political Science), Yang Su (UCI Sociology) and Royce Carroll (Rice University, Political Science)

A light lunch will be served.

Seating is limited; please RSVP to csd@uci.edu or 949-824-2904.