The Election is Over: The Challenges Ahead

Visiting Fellow to Lecture

EMMITSBURG, MD – Mount St. Mary’s University hosts Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Robert Muehlenkamp, an internationally renowned social justice activist and trade union organizer for an intensive week-long visit on November 10 -14.  On November 12, 2008 he will conduct a lecture focusing on post-election challenges in Knott Auditorium at 7:00 pm.   The lecture is free and open to the public.

 During this week, Muehlenkamp is conducting classes, seminars, workshops, and lectures and meeting with students and faculty members informally to share his practical knowledge in the areas of the successes and failures of the anti-Iraq War movement, the role of unions in American democracy, and what American would look like without unions, U.S. social justice movements, and organizing for social change.

“Muehlenkamp is a perfect fit for Mount St. Mary’s University. Our students will have a chance to meet a world class social justice activist and trade union organizer with a deep knowledge of organizing for social change, helping to create better understanding and new connections between the academic and nonacademic worlds,” said Dr. Powell, President of Mount St. Mary’s University. We’re delighted that Muehlenkamp will also have time to get to know our camps and to explore in depth how the classroom and campus relate to the broader society.”

 Robert Muehlenkamp served as Executive Vice President and National Organizing Director at SEIU-1199, the hospital workers union, and as the Teamster Organizing Director. He was Senior Advisor with Governor Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. He is currently applying internet and email organizing techniques to various union and social justice campaigns, including the campaign to change Wal-Mart. He teaches a course on “American Social Justice Movements” at the University of Maryland.

The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program, which is administered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in Washington, D.C., brings prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders, and other professionals to campuses across the United States for a week-long residential program of classes, seminars, workshops, lectures, and informal discussions.  For 35 years, the Visiting Fellows have been introducing students and faculty members at liberal arts colleges to a wide range of perspectives on life, society, community, and achievement. The Visiting Fellows program is available to all four-year colleges and universities. For more information, visit CIC’s website at www.cic.edu/visitngfellows.