Non-Member Lectures   

In 1822 the fur trader Alexis St. Martin suffered a shotgun wound on Mackinaw Island. He was attended by the physician William Beaumont. The blast left a hole in St. Martin’s abdomen, and for the next 33 years Beaumont did experiments through that opening. We will explore their travels together through the wilderness of the early republic, discuss how the experiments led to our current understanding of gastrointestinal physiology, and question the ethics of how Beaumont chose to experiment on St. Martin.

Joel D. Howell is the Elizabeth Farrand Professor Emeritus in the University of Michigan Departments of Internal Medicine and History. He obtained his MD at the University of Chicago and his PhD in History and Sociology of Science from the
University of Pennsylvania. His career has included clinical care and studying medical history, trying to understand why (and when) we came to believe so strongly in the value of science for guiding patient care. Author of many books and articles, Howell’s publications have appeared widely in medical and historical literature. His research has been supported both by federal grants and by foundations. His awards include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research and the Burroughs Wellcome Award in the History of Medicine. Prof. Howell is a Master of the American College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

The November 3rd, 2026, U.S. midterm elections at once serve as a test of American democracy, a referendum on the Trump presidency, a decision point for the future of the country, and an opportunity to assess how the parties are jockeying for and perhaps cheating in their desire to lead the nation in very different directions. This talk will examine what we know so far about what happened in 2026 and what those results are likely to portend.

Josh Pasek is Professor of Communication & Media and Political Science, Research Professor at the Center for Political Studies at I.S.R., and core faculty at the Michigan Institute for Data Science at U. of M. His research explores how social media and psychological processes shape political attitudes, public opinion, and political behaviors. He also studies ways to improve the predictive accuracy of public opinion surveys. Prof. Pasek’s current research explores how political information might influence public opinion and voter decision-making and evaluates how use of online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter might be changing the political information environment. He is the author of two books about American elections, Words that Matter and Democracy Amid Crises. His work has been published in Public Opinion
Quarterly, Political Communication, and Political Psychology, among other outlets.

Every national economy has a distinct character — a mix of laws, norms, and habits that shape which kinds of businesses flourish. America's tilt is toward markets: Outsourcing over in-house production, contractors over employees. AI will amplify these tendencies, using algorithms to set wages, negotiate contracts, and price goods. Left unguided, the result is an atomized economy where everyone fends for themselves, thus negatively impacting the quality of life. But smart public policy can change that.

Jerry Davis is the Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He has spent his career studying the corporation as a social and economic force — how finance reshaped America, why large corporations are vanishing, and how to tame corporate power. His six books include Managed by the Markets and The Vanishing American Corporation. His current work examines how AI is transforming economic organization. Prof. Davis has received many awards for his research and teaching, including the George R. Terry Book Award for “Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of
Management Knowledge,” the Award for Teaching Excellence, Ross Business School, and Fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

This presentation will focus on the role of social media – and other sources – in the way people understand campaigns and politics. In particular, the presentation will consider why people may turn to social media for information and the role of social media platforms in political expression. Ultimately, the presentation will consider what we gain and what we lose when we rely on social media for political information.

Yanna Krupnikov is Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on political communication and political expression. She is the co-author of books, Independent Politics (2016), The Other Divide (2022) and Partisan Hostility and American Democracy (2024). Her current work focuses on the role of the news in people’s everyday lives.

Dr. Sollenberger examines how the expansion of presidential power is shaping American politics in ways that are increasingly visible in the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections. Focusing on key governing norms, he looks at how changes in government institutions, law enforcement, media, and election rules affect what citizens see, believe, and ultimately how they vote. The lecture considers what these developments mean for the role of midterm elections as a check on presidential power in contemporary American democracy.

Dr. Mitchel A. Sollenberger is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan–Dearborn and a former analyst at the Congressional Research Service. His research centers on presidential power, constitutional law, and executive authority. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including The President Shall Nominate, Executive Privilege, and The Unitary Executive Theory, as well as numerous scholarly articles examining the modern presidency and separation of powers.

Are policymakers rewarded in elections when they succeed in moving public policy in their ideological direction? Or do they face a thermostatic backlash, as citizens judge their policy moves as too hot or too cold? My analysis of Congressional election outcomes since 1948 adds information on Congressional policy actions to traditional election models emphasizing the surge and decline of presidential support and referendums based on presidential approval and the economy. I find that the electorate reacts against the ideological direction of policy, voting against parties that pushes
policy further to the left or to the right in both midterm and presidential years. Even after accounting for policy and traditional explanations, however, there remains a large midterm penalty for the president’s party.

Matt Grossmann is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center and host of the Science of Politics podcast. He is an author of The Not-So-Special Interests, Artists of the Possible, Asymmetric Politics (with David Hopkins), Red State Blues, How Social Science Got Better, and Polarized by Degrees (also with David). He is co-owner of Hooked (a bookstore/cafe). His forthcoming book is Policymaking for Realists.

Dulio will examine the most recent data about what to expect in the 2026 election cycle. He will also examine the major races in Michigan including the U.S. Senate contest and the race for governor.

Professor David Dulio is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Oakland University. He teaches courses on campaigns and elections, Congress, political parties, and interest groups. Dulio has published sixteen books, with two of his most recent being Congress and Religion: The Intersection of Faith and Politics and Campaigns and Elections American Syte: The Changing Landscape of Political Campaigns, and has written extensively on U.S. elections, campaign finance, and political consultants. He also served as an APSA Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House.

Although it may seem as though the Arctic has just entered the collective consciousness with renewed American interest in Greenland, the region has long been of importance for climate scientists, military planners, and naturally individuals living in the Arctic region itself. This presentation will provide an overview of the region’s importance, stretching from Alaska, to Europe, to Russia – showing how changes in European geopolitics and security have direct implications for the future of the region.

Dr. Gabriella Gricius is an Associate Professor of Strategy at the Norwegian Military Academy and a Fellow with the North American and Arctic Defense and Security Network (NAADSN). She is also a Senior Fellow at the Arctic Institute. She is currently working on a project covering Nordic security community formation and hybrid threats in the European Arctic region.

What are Russia’s policy objectives in Arctic security, governance and international cooperation? How does Moscow perceive the current situation of ‘low engagement’ with the West in the Arctic, the volatility around President Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland, and the Russia-China relationship in the region?

Pavel Devyatkin, a non-resident fellow of both the Quincy Institute in Washington, D.C. and The Arctic Institute, has published Arctic militarization, nuclear weapons and arms control, great power competition and regional cooperation. His writing has been published by the U.S. Department of Defense, Strategic Analysis, Polar Journal, Italian Institute for International Political Studies, and other outlets. He provides consultations to academic institutions, diplomats and businesses on Arctic affairs. A graduate of the London School of Economics and University College London, Pavel is an American of Russian ancestry.

The North American Arctic — spanning Alaska, Northern Canada, and Greenland — is often portrayed through simplified narratives: a frozen wilderness, a geopolitical battleground, or a region of untapped opportunity. The realities are far more complex. This talk explores common myths, examining how climate change, Indigenous leadership, geopolitics, science, and economic pressures are reshaping the region. Drawing on current events and policy experience, the presentation offers a more grounded understanding of a rapidly changing Arctic.

Dr. Jennifer Spence is Director of Harvard’s Arctic Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. A specialist in Arctic governance and public policy, her work focuses on sustainable development, international cooperation, and the challenges facing Northern communities. She previously served as Executive Secretary of the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group and has held senior roles with the Government of Canada.

Environmental changes are occurring rapidly throughout the Arctic region, including melting sea ice and glaciers, rising temperatures, loss of snow cover and absorption of solar heat, thawing permafrost and the release of greenhouse gases, and increases in severity of wildfires, precipitation, and storms. These changes and their interactions are disrupting the function of ecosystems as well as the livelihoods and cultures of resident populations. Additionally, the changes are now having impacts outside the Arctic and are altering global weather patterns and amplifying global warming.

Professor George Kling is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. A limnologist (the study of lakes) and Arctic researcher, he primarily studies ecosystem ecology and how water, nutrients, and greenhouse gases are transferred between land, surface waters, and the atmosphere. Professor Kling is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received numerous awards for his research on the impact of climate change on aquatic ecosystems from the Arctic to the tropics.

Often conceived of by outsiders as primordial and timeless, the Arctic in fact moves through history like any other region on earth. This presentation will examine key themes in Arctic history—both human and environmental—tracing change and continuity over four broad time periods: indigenous, colonial, industrial, and contemporary.

Dr. John McCannon is a historian of Russia and the polar regions. He was educated at Yale University (BA) and the University of Chicago (MA/PhD). He taught history for 30 years, most recently at the University of Saskatchewan and Southern New Hampshire University. His publications include Red Arctic (1998); A History of the Arctic (2012); and Nicholas Roerich: The Artist Who Would Be King (2022). He currently works as a guide and lecturer for Viking Cruises.