A Team of Political Scientists, a Convention Like No Other, and a Search for One Good Protest

A protester is blocked after holding up a "No Racism, No Hate" sign during the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Tuesday, July 19, 2016. / Photo by Antonella Crescimbeni

A protester is blocked after holding up a “No Racism, No Hate” sign during the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Tuesday, July 19, 2016. / Photo by Antonella Crescimbeni

A group from Penn State are attending both the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the Democrat National Convention to conduct research on protests. Their work at the RNC is featured in at article at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Read some excerpts of this article below:

“The Pennsylvania State University delegation — a professor, three graduate students, and 10 undergrads — arrived here at the Republican National Convention full of excitement suffused with dread.”

“Political junkies of all stripes were descending on Cleveland to reckon with the once-unthinkable coronation of the businessman Donald J. Trump as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. The candidate’s showmanship, combined with rumblings of a possible mutiny among the delegates, promised a spectacle inside the heavily guarded Quicken Loans Arena. But the Penn State group was not here for the party. They were here for the party-crashers.”

“The team, led by Lee Ann Banaszak, a professor of political science, came to collect data for a study of the protesters — not just what they want and when they want it but also: Where are they from? How long are they staying? What do they care about?”

Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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