On Monday, September 17, 2018, Assistant Professor of Government Justin Peck delivered Wesleyan’s 2018 Constitution Day talk entitled “Progress, Preservation, and the Constitution After Trump.” The event was held in the Hubbard Room of Russell Library, which was packed with about 90 Middletown and Wesleyan community members.
Andrew White, Caleb T. Winchester University Librarian, and Michael Meere, chair of the Friends of the Wesleyan Library and Assistant Professor of French, before thanking Russell Library for hosting and then introducing Justin Peck.
Justin Peck is in his second year as Assistant Professor of Government. Prior to joining Wesleyan, Justin was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University. Justin’s scholarship explores the historical construction of American politics. He is currently finishing a book manuscript that explores how ideological.battles within the Republican party influenced civil rights policy enactments from 1865-1918. He is also working on a project that explores how preferences about the proper distribution of powers between the three branches of government influences how members of Congress vote. He holds a B.A. in Politics and History from Brandeis University, and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia.
Justin detailed the tension between those who seek to preserve the Constitution as they idealize it and those who are dissatisfied and want change. He compared the political and economic situation in the U.S. in the late nineteenth century with the current climate.
