Type: Public event
Host: Ford School

Sarah Kendzior: Hiding in Plain Sight

Date & time

Mar 31, 2022, 4:00-5:00 pm EDT

Location

This is a Virtual Event.

Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, will be in conversation with Jonathan Hanson, political scientist and lecturer in statistics at the Ford School as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.

Attendance requirements

This virtual event will have a live watch party in Weill Hall, Room 1110. A free copy of Sarah Kendzior's book, Hiding in Plain Sight, will be provided for attendees at the viewing party on a first-come first-serve basis. Attendance at this watch party is limited to current University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. All attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building, and masks are required. Registration is required to attend.

From the speaker’s bio

Sarah Kendzior is a journalist who lectures on politics, the economy, and the media. Since 2006, she has regularly given talks and keynotes at universities and policy forums around the world. She is the author of the best-selling book The View From Flyover Country, which was re-released in 2018 after originally being published as an eBook in 2015 and becoming a bestseller the following year, and her new book Hiding in Plain Sight

Sarah Kendzior received her Ph.D. studying the authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union and has since put that expertise to use in explaining what is happening to the United States. Today she writes regularly for the Globe and Mail, NBC News, and Fast Company. She has over 350,000 followers on Twitter and is regularly interviewed by the media both in the US and abroad. In summer 2018, she launched the Gaslit Nation podcast with Andrea Chalupa. She is a recurring guest on the MSNBC show AM Joy, where she discusses corruption in the Trump administration as well as the Russian interference scandal.

Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy – how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.

About the series

Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press

U.S. democratic institutions are under attack. While law enforcement agencies and a Congressional committee still work to investigate the January 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol – political violence aimed at blocking or overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election – a wave of subsequent efforts have continued to seek to undermine the norms and structures that have given Americans basic confidence in elections and in the peaceful transfer of power. Meanwhile, from state houses to the Supreme Court, bitter debates rage over voting rights, access, and security. 

The University of Michigan will host four award-winning journalists who will share their insights into the forces threatening and protecting American democratic structures and systems. The series is a partnership between the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Wallace House, and U-M Democracy & Debate 2021-22.

The Democracy in Crisis series will also explore the current state of journalism and the role of the press in upholding democratic institutions–at a time of demagogic attacks on the media and dramatic shifts in media ownership and independence.

The series begins with three events in March featuring Molly Ball, Barton Gellman, and Sarah Kendzior, and will culminate in a keynote lecture at the Michigan League by Pulitzer Prize winning author, journalist, and historian, Anne Applebaum, on April 4. 

Sponsors

Hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Co-sponsored by Democracy & Debate, Wallace House, Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.