News from SUNY Plattsburgh

For more information contact: Michelle Marasch Ouellette, 518-564-2090

SUNY Plattsburgh Presents American Democracy Lecture

Milner to Speak on Political Engagement of Youth in the U.S.

PLATTSBURGH, NY (02/11/2008; 1205)(readMedia)-- On Thursday, Feb. 21, SUNY Plattsburgh's American Democracy Project Committee will present a lecture by Henry Milner, titled "Politics? Who, Me? Why Fewer Young Americans Participate in the Political Process Than Youth in Other Democratic Countries." The lecture will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Room 106 of Hudson Hall. This is change in venue for the program which was originally scheduled for the college's Cardinal Lounge.

In this free public forum, Milner will tie together themes from the American Democracy Project and his current research. He will look at young Americans and compare them to their counterparts in other countries, discussing what they know about politics and how much they participate in the political process. Finally, he will look at how institutions in America make it difficult to attain high levels of participation, using the current mobilization around the presidential primaries as a backdrop.

Henry Milner is a visiting professor of at Umeå University in Sweden, and a research fellow at the Université de Montréal and the Institute for Research in Public Policy (IRPP). In 2005-2006, he was the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Scholar at SUNY Plattsburgh, and in 2004-2005, he was chair of Canadian Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. He has also been a visiting professor or researcher at universities in Finland, Australia and New Zealand. His books include "Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work" (2002), "Social Democracy and Rational Choice" (1994), and "Sweden: Social Democracy in Practice" (1989). He is co-publisher of Inroads, the Canadian journal of opinion and policy.

The American Democracy Project is a multi-campus initiative that seeks to create an intellectual and experiential understanding of civic engagement for undergraduates. For more information on this talk or the series, contact Lizabeth Woodard at 518-564-5402 or via email at lizabeth.woodard@plattsburgh.edu.

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