Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

The California Paradox

Fri, April 28, 2023
Lunch Program

Over the past half century, California has experienced sweeping demographic, economic, cultural, and political changes. The state has emerged from these changes as a paradox—flourishing on a grand scale yet beset by enormous and worsening problems. One could say California is a disastrous success. In this talk, Ken Miller, the Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at CMC and the director of the Rose Institute, will discuss how the paradox has developed—and, also, how today the Rose Institute is seeking to promote a positive future for the Golden State.

Professor Miller’s Athenaeum presentation celebrates his installation ceremony as the Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.

 

Ken Miller, Ph.D. (B.A. Pomona College, J.D. Harvard Law School, and Ph.D. U.C. Berkeley) is Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. He became director of the Rose Institute on July 1, 2021, having served as associate director from 2009 to June 2021.

Miller has served as a member of CMC’s Government faculty since 2003. His research focuses on state government institutions, with an emphasis on direct democracy and the interaction between law and politics. His publications include Texas vs. California: A History of Their Struggle for the Future of America (Oxford University Press, 2020), Direct Democracy and the Courts (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and co-edited volumes Parchment Barriers: Political Polarization and the Limits of Constitutional Order (University Press of Kansas, 2018) and The New Political Geography of California (Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2008). 

Previously, Miller was the Ann and Herbert Vaughan Fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University (2011-2012) and a visiting scholar at the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University (2017-2018). 

At the Rose Institute, he has worked with students on numerous research projects, including the biennial Video Voter Guide project and the 24-state Miller-Rose Institute Initiative Database.

Professor Miller’s Athenaeum presentation celebrates his installation ceremony as the Don H. and Edessa Rose Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
385 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711

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