Jeff Smith – Subject of the Documentary “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?” – To Speak at Allegheny College
Sept. 15, 2014 — Former Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith will speak at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center at Allegheny College. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Assistant professor of politics and advocacy at the New School for Public Engagement, Smith teaches and researches political campaigns, urban political economy, policy advocacy and the legislative process.
His presentation is 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.
Smith served in the Missouri Senate from 2006 to 2009, representing inner-city St. Louis, where he co-founded a group of charter schools, the Confluence Academies, that focus on math and science education. His youth-powered grass-roots congressional campaign was chronicled in a documentary — “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?” – that was short-listed for an Academy Award. A free screening of the documentary will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18 in Quigley Hall auditorium.
Smith is the author of “Trading Places,” about U.S. partisan realignment from 1975 to 2004, and is completing a book about the politics of prison reform. In addition to writing for political science journals, he is an advice columnist for the New York political publication City and State and frequently addresses audiences of public officials on ethics in politics. He has appeared on CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Current and has been profiled by NPR’s This American Life, Harper’s, the New Republic and other periodicals.
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.