After every midterm and presidential election, the Elections Research Center hosts a symposium in December. The all-day event features academic experts and political professionals who analyze the results of the elections in Wisconsin and around the country.
Past symposiums featured a variety of different topics, such as the impact of social media, the prominence of women candidates and gender issues, partisan change in the electorate, insights from polling, and much more.
Recordings of the past events are available below. We hope you will join us in 2024!
2022 Symposium:
Visit our YouTube channel for all the panels
View an alternative 2022 recording by clicking the Wisconsin logo:
The 2022 symposium returned to an in-person format but also provided an online-viewing option. The event featured presentations from academics and journalists.
- What Happened in 2022, and What’s Next in 2024 (Kyle Kondik)
- Women in the Midterms: American “Democra-she” in 2022 (Grace Panetta)
- Political Advertising in the 2022 Midterms (Travis Ridout)
- Political Campaigns, Social Media, Journalism, and the Identitarian Citizen in a Democracy (Shannon McGregor)
- Polling the Wisconsin Elections (Charles Franklin)
2020 Symposium
The two-and-a-half-hour 2020 symposium was an online-only event due to the COVID-19 pandemic and featured academic presentations from inside and outside of UW-Madison.
- The Trump Elections (Jonathan Ladd)
- The 2020 Swing State Vote and the Democrats’ Agenda in 2021 (Michael Wagner)
- Not So Fast: The Tea Party’s Lasting Impact on the Republican Party (Rachel Blum)
- Steadfast Democrats (Chryl Laird)
- Policy Priorities and the 2020 Election (Chris Tausanovitch)
2018 Symposium
View the 2018 recording by clicking the Wisconsin logo:
The 2018 symposium featured the Washington Post’s national political correspondent Karen Tumulty along with a host of other academic presentations.
- The Political Impact of Social and Economic Change Since 1965 (Katherine Cramer)
- Worldview and the 2018 Election (Marc Hetherington)
- Measuring Success for Women in Election 2018 (Kelly Dittmar)
- A Look Back at the Politics of 2018 (Karen Tumulty)
- (Undisclosed) Campaigns on Social Media (Young Mie Kim)
- Can Digital Literacy Save Us from Fake News? (Brendan Nyhan)
- The 2018 Wisconsin Elections: What Changed, and What Didn’t? (Charles Franklin)
- The 2018 Elections within the Wisconsin Communication Ecology (Michael Wagner)
2016 Symposium
View the 2016 recording by clicking the Wisconsin logo:
- Journalists Look at the Presidential Campaign
- Molly Ball, The Atlantic
- Dan Balz, Washinton Post
- Campaign Communications
- Erika Franklin Fowler, TV Advertising in the 2016 Campaign
- Young Mie Kim, Digital Advertising
- Dhavan Shah, Understanding Election Dynamics via Social Media
- Ideology and Independents
- Samara Klar, Independent Voters in the 2016 Election
- Michael Wagner, Ideological Heterogeneity and the 2016 Election
- Demographic Groups in the Electorate
- Barry Burden, Understanding the 2016 Gender Gap
- Katherine Cramer, The Politics of Resentment
- Michael Tesler, Racial Attitudes in 2016
- The Larger Electoral Structure
- Gary Jacobson, Congressional Elections of 2016
- Byron Shafer, 2016 in the Long View
- The U.S. Senate Election in Wisconsin
- Charles Franklin, Marquette Law Poll
- Brian Reisinger, Ron Johnson campaign
- Tom Russell, Russ Feingold campaign