Expert on Election Reform Tova Wang To Give Constitution Day Lecture at Allegheny College

Sept. 10, 2014 — Allegheny College will observe Constitution Day with a lecture by Tova Wang, an expert on election reform and political participation in the United States and internationally. Wang will speak on the topic “The Right To Vote and the Politics of Voter Suppression” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, in the college’s Ford Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Constitution Day is held on Sept. 17 each year to celebrate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Wang’s presentation is also part of the college’s Year of Voting Rights and Democratic Participation, which celebrates the 50th anniversary in 2015 of the Voting Rights Act and explores the state of voting rights, broadly defined, in the world today. The Year of Voting Rights and Democratic Participation is the academic centerpiece of the college’s bicentennial celebration.

Wang’s work focuses primarily on voting rights and increasing political engagement, especially among immigrants, communities of color, ethnic minorities and the poor.

She is Senior Democracy Fellow at Demos, a public policy organization working for an America where everyone has an equal say in American democracy and an equal chance in the American economy, and a Fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive nonpartisan think tank. She also serves as a consultant to organizations working to improve democracy around the world, such as the National Democratic Institute and the Carter Center.

Wang is the author of “The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans’ Right to Vote,” published by Cornell University Press in 2012.

More information on Year of Voting Rights and Democratic Participation events at Allegheny College, which will feature a keynote presentation by Lani Guinier on November 14, among many other events, can be found at www.allegheny.edu/200.