On March 15, 2025, Saint Anselm College, in partnership with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP), hosted the sixth biannual American Elections Academic Symposium. The conference, titled “Politics in Uncertain Times,” brought together 32 authors and co-authors from 25 institutions and provided a platform for scholars to discuss the latest research on the 2024 election cycle.
Event organizers included: Prof. Kevin Doran, chair, Sociology and Social Work; Prof. Tauna Sisco, chair, Psychology; and politics professors Christopher Galdieri, and Jennifer Lucas. Opening remarks were offered by Abbot Isaac Murphy who offered reflections on the recent abbatial elections in the monastery and made comparisons to secular election process.
"The American Elections Conference is consistently one of the most engaging and collegial conferences I’ve attended, so I was excited to be able to contribute as a co-organizer this year,” stated Doran. “We had a thoughtful dialogue about the research that the participants shared with those in attendance."
The symposium featured multiple panel discussions covering election administration, voter behavior, and party realignment. A keynote address was delivered by Dr. Dannagal Young from the University of Delaware, who provided insights into the evolving political landscape in the wake of the 2024 elections.
Lucas expressed enthusiasm about the symposium's success, highlighting the importance of bringing together some of the nation's leading election scholars. “The symposium style allows for conversation among elections scholars as they update scholarly theories about campaigns and elections based on the results of the 2024 elections,” she said. “The papers covered topics from election administration to explaining why Harris lost and Trump won, and included fascinating questions like ‘how does climate change impact elections?’ and ‘how do politics intersect with perceptions of Taylor Swift?’"
Saint Anselm College is set to host the seventh iteration of the conference in 2029, continuing its role as a hub for scholarly discourse on American elections. Registration and proposal submissions for the next conference will be available on the NHIOP website as the election cycle approaches.