Patterson

Monday, Oct. 25, 2004

Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard professor and author

Surge at the Polls: Does the 2004 Election Signal the End of Declining Voter Participation?

Thomas E. Patterson, professor of government and the press at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, has been studying the steady decline in voter participation for much of his career.

Patterson is the author of "Vanishing Voter: Civic Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty," which looks at the causes of declining electoral participation, including weakening loyalty to political, modern campaign techniques and attack journalism. He also is the author of "Out of Order," an exploration of the media's role in politics that received the American Political Science Association’s Doris Graber Award. An earlier book, "The Unseeing Eye," was named by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as one of the 50 most influential books on public opinion.

Before coming to Harvard in 1996, Patterson taught for more than two decades at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship. His research has been funded by the Ford, Markle, Knight, Smith-Richardson, Pew and National Science foundations.

Patterson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

This information is accurate for the time period that this person(s) spoke at Hobart and William Smith.