People, Institutions, and Policy: The UW’s Research on American Democracy
The UW is coming to you! Join fellow UW alumni in Los Angeles to discover what current research has to say about the potential future paths of our democracy. You’ll enjoy an afternoon of lightning talks and a Q & A session with Daniel Tokaji, Michael Wagner, and Robert Yablon ’99 as they discuss federal election litigation, constitutional election law, and the role of the media in the pursuit of civil discourse.
Don’t miss this chance to gather with local Badgers for an afternoon of delicious hors d’oeuvres and exciting discussions about the developments coming out of our university!
Please register by September 25. A limited number of walk-ins will be accepted as capacity allows.
Special thanks to Julie and Peter Weil ’70, JD’74 for generously hosting this event.
Speakers
Jennifer L. Mnookin, JD, PhD is the 30th leader of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and one of the nation’s top legal scholars. She is dedicated to pushing boundaries to bring the university to new levels of excellence and to energizing and expanding the Wisconsin Idea, UW–Madison’s commitment to innovation for the public good. Under her leadership, the university has been designated as a national center for innovation and economic prosperity and recognized as one of the top institutions in the country for opening doors to opportunity. In 2024, Chancellor Mnookin launched the largest cross-campus initiative in the university’s history — Wisconsin RISE (for Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Excellence) — to expand educational opportunities and research at UW–Madison around significant, complex challenges affecting Wisconsin and the world. Chancellor Mnookin has spent her academic career at top public research universities, including UCLA and the University of Virginia, and now UW-Madison, and was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. She holds degrees from Harvard, Yale, and MIT.
Daniel Tokaji is the Fred W. & Vi Miller Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Tokaji became dean of the UW Law School in 2020. From 2003 to 2020, he was on the faculty at Ohio State University, where he served as the associate dean for faculty and the Charles W. Ebersold & Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law. He has also taught at Harvard Law School, Hong Kong University, and Oxford University. A leading authority in the field of election law, Tokaji’s work addresses questions of voting rights, free speech, and democratic inclusion. His recent scholarship addresses the challenges facing democracies around the globe, including the free speech issues surrounding digital disinformation, the need for trustworthy electoral institutions, and the role of law schools in strengthening democratic governance. He has published more than 50 law review articles, book chapters, and other scholarly papers on a wide range of topics. His recent work includes “Election Law, Democracy, and Legal Education” in Beyond Imagination? The January 6 Insurrection (2022); “Voter Registration in a Pandemic,” University of Chicago Law Review Online (2020); and “Denying Systemic Equality: The Last Words of the Kennedy Court,” Harvard Law & Policy Review (2019).
Michael Wagner, PhD is a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea. He is also the director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at UW–Madison. An award-winning teacher, Wagner teaches courses focused on reporting, political communication, media and behavior, physiology and communication, fact-checking, public opinion, and opinion writing. His current research projects include studies of the influence of academic research on policymaking, partisan issue framing in the news media on the electorate, how people connect their religious views to their political preferences, the public consequences of political vilification in politics and the media, the influence of public opinion polls on public opinion itself, redistricting and representation, and more. He also runs the fact-checking site The Observatory with Lucas Graves. Wagner’s work has been widely published across a variety of disciplines and subfields in journals such as Journal of Communication, Political Communication, Annual Review of Political Science, Human Communication Research, and many others. His latest book, Political Behavior in the American Electorate (with Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, William Flanigan, and Nancy Zingale), was published by CQ Press.
Eric Wilcots, PhD, is the Mary C. Jacoby Professor of Astronomy and dean of the UW–Madison College of Letters & Science. His research focuses on the evolution and gas content of individual galaxies and galaxy groups through the lens of radio wavelengths. Prior to moving to Madison, he was a Karl Jansky Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico, and he continues that line of research through leading the UW’s involvement in the South African Large Telescope (SALT) project, the largest single-aperture telescope in the southern hemisphere. In addition to his academic research and classroom work, he has won two teaching awards during his time at UW–Madison, including the Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Teaching Award. He’s the current cochair of the statewide steering committee for the Wisconsin Science Festival and has led the Universe in the Park outreach program.
Robert Yablon ’99 is an associate professor of law and faculty codirector of the State Democracy Research Initiative. His research interests include political and election law, constitutional law, federal and state courts, and statutory interpretation. His recent publications have appeared in the NYU Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, and Iowa Law Review. In 2018, UW Law students honored him with the Classroom Teacher of the Year Award. In 2019, he received a University Distinguished Teaching Award. Yablon has served as a law clerk for Judge William Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. He also worked in private practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco and Washington, DC. He has been the principal author of dozens of appellate and trial-level briefs, and has argued in a number of state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Schedule of Events
| 2 p.m. | Check-in |
| 2:30 p.m. | Program followed by a Q & A |
| 3:45 p.m. | Reception |
| 5 p.m. | Event concludes |
Additional Information
When you register, please inform us of any dietary needs, accommodations (such as captions or interpreting services), or other needs.
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association will hold this event in accordance with all local public health guidance. Mask usage is welcome but not required. Participants who are sick are asked to stay home to help keep our Badger community safe and healthy. If conditions require a change to this event, you will be notified via email or phone call.
