BFA Visual & Critical Studies and the Honors Program welcomes back Frances Fox Piven—political scientist, activist and, according to Glenn Beck, one of the “nine most dangerous people in the world”—to analyze the upcoming presidential election, democracy and politics today.

Since 2016, American politics have produced more than a few shocks. What explains the continuing instability of American politics? What coalitions are in play to impact this upcoming contest? What are the potential consequences of the race? What role has Gaza played in the year’s developments? Do we have cause for optimism?

And more generally, How is American democracy faring? Why do so few Americans vote? What are the forces arrayed for and against democracy and how do we accurately gauge their relative strengths? What are the sources of democratic decline and revival? What can ordinary people do to achieve a better world? Is there a growing potential for American fascism?

Frances Fox Piven, Professor Emerita of Politics at CUNY, has been among the most incisive, humane and engaged voices on the left for decades in the struggle for voter rights, welfare rights, working peoples rights and social reform. She is the co-founder of the National Welfare Rights Organization and the author of Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America, Poor Peoples Movements, Regulating the Poor and Why Americans Don’t Vote. She has spoken annually at SVA on social movements and electoral politics since 2016.