By Lily Bohlke
bohlkeli@grinnell.edu

The Rosenfield Program is committed to public affairs, international relations and human rights, all of which are topics to discuss in the context of last week’s election results.

Among events that the Rosenfield Program has planned in reaction to the Election, Professor Sarah Purcell, Director of the Rosenfield Program, moderated a panel discussion last week with Political Science Professors Barbara Trish, Doug Hess and Wayne Moyer.

“The idea was to have an analysis of the election, because one of the main things the Rosenfield program tries to do is bring a context and an analytical eye to current events of all different kinds,” Purcell said. “Bringing people together to come at the results from that angle, just as one piece of trying to make sense of the election.”

Hess began by speaking about the outcome of the election itself, including voter demographics, turnout and vote counts. Trish talked about the politics of the election in terms of trying to figure out why these results were so unexpected. She talked about reading polls and forecasting models. Moyer spoke about prospects for international relations. Finally, the panel opened up for questions.

“It was unexpected that someone like [Donald Trump] would win,” Trish said. “There was a lot of tension and toil within the Republican party. His campaign seemed to be doing things that didn’t bode well for success [even though] it turned out successful, and I think for some people, it’s just hard to imagine.”

As a non-partisan organization in a non-partisan institution, Purcell emphasized the importance of providing a space to validate students’ reactions, whether they are positive or negative.

“Some people, depending on their identities, have different stakes in certain policy issues and we want to validate that,” Purcell said.

This week, the Rosenfield program planned two more programs to help analyze the election in Burling Lounge. Tuesday at 11 a.m., Josh Voorhees, Senior Writer at Slate Magazine, discussed how data journalism played a role in the election. Thursday at 11 a.m., John Norris, a former Obama administration appointee, will give an insider’s look at presidential transitions.