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AROUND THE QUADS COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY AROUND THE QUADS
Robert Y. Shapiro, who specializes
in American politics,
is a professor and former
chair of the Department of
Political Science. His most
recent books include The
Oxford Handbook of American
Public Opinion and the
Media (edited with Lawrence
R. Jacobs) and Selling
Fear:Counterterrorism,
the Media, and Public
Opinion (with Columbia’s
Brigitte L. Nacos and
Yaeli Bloch-Elkon). Shapiro
earned a B.S. from MIT and
a Ph.D. from Chicago; he has
worked at Columbia since
1982 and last sat for “5 Minutes
with” in summer 2008.
You recently returned from
Egypt. Tell me about that.
I was invited to speak at
the American University in
Cairo by the president of the
univer sity, Lisa Anderson,
who is a former dean of
SIPA. She in vited three of
her successor department
chairs, including myself, to
run a 3 ½-day workshop on
research methods in political
science for the purposes of,
as I like to say, jumpstarting
interest in quantitative approaches
to political science
and studying political issues
relevant to the students and
faculty.
How did it go?
It went well; we got people’s
attention. We talked about
big-picture issues that were
quite relevant to what’s
been happening in Egypt —
things like the relationship
between democracy and
economic development, the
relationship between Islam
and democratization, the
relationship between Islam
and oil, and the empowerment
of women in the Middle
East and elsewhere and
then, also, the relationship
between democratization
and political conflict, civil
wars and things like that.
Will you be involved with
the U.S. presidential election
this fall?
As of now, I don’t have any
plans to be. The last election
I was involved in was doing
exit poll analysis for ABC
News, in 2008. But I do follow
the data regularly and more
so as the election nears.
And what are you seeing?
One, polls show that the upcoming
election is going to be
a close election — you don’t
have to be a political science
expert or professor to get a
sense of that. But to put it in
historical context, the competitiveness
of politics is very
different now from the latter
part of the 20th century, when
both parties were competitive
for control of the White House
but the Democrats, for a big
chunk of the post-war period,
controlled the Senate and the
House of Representatives. That
changed beginning in 1980
when the Republicans won
the Senate on Ronald Reagan’s
coattails and then continued
in 1994, which was a very important
election — the Republicans
were finally able to get
control of the House of Representatives,
which they hadn’t
done in 40 some-odd years.
The other pattern is the
overall nature of partisan
conflict in the United States.
The parties are divided at the
level of political leadership
and you find the same thing
at an unprecedented level in
mass public opinion, where
Democrats and Republicans
more consistently think of
themselves and call themselves
liberals and conservatives
and take identifiable,
predictable patterns of liberal
and conservative opinions
on policy issues in a way that
they hadn’t in the middle of
the 20th century.
FALL 2012
10
What are you focusing on
these days with regard to
your own research?
I recently worked with some
undergraduates, looking at
American public opinion
trends toward the Mideast
conflict, focusing on the Israelis
and the Palestinians. And
then I’m also working on a
Five Minutes with ... Robert Y. Shapiro
higher-priority book project
with my recent collaborators,
Nacos and Bloch-Elkon, looking
at the Tea Party movement
and the Occupy Wall
Street movement — how they
were covered by the media
and how they, in turn, used
the mass media and social
media in their efforts. And
what broader effects this has
had on American politics.
Would you anticipate that
the Tea Party and Occupy
Wall Street will continue
to have as much influence
moving forward?
What movements are successful
at, if not persuading people
to adopt the opinions they
adopt, is to make issues visible
and more salient. With the
Tea Party, things had settled
down for a while — the party
seemed to have lost some of
its luster — but things are
now heating up in the current
election, and the Republican
party is a stronger
conservative party because
of the Tea Party movement.
As for the effect of Occupy,
the big question is, had they
not become active in the way
they were, would the
Democrats and
Obama have
used the issue
of economic
inequality
the way
they are in
the current
campaign?
We can’t run the experiment,
but I suspect they may have
not.
What does your middle initial
Y stand for?
Yale. Has nothing to do with
the university. It’s an Anglicized
and greatly shortened
Yiddish name.
Is there anything else
you think we should
talk about?
I still like pizza. [laughs]
That’s right. You mentioned
that the last time you sat
with CCT.
The funny part was, when my
wife read the interview, she
said she learned some things
about me that she didn’t
know. She didn’t really fully
appreciate how much my favorite
food is pizza.
Did she know about your
dream of being shortstop for
the Yankees?
No, but anybody who knew
me when I was young would
understand that.
Interview: Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts
Photo: Eileen Barroso
For more conversation with
Shapiro, go to Web Extras at
college.columbia.edu/cct.
Virginia W. Cornish ’91 Named Helena Rubinstein Professor
Virginia W. Cornish ’91, the first
College alumna to become a
tenured professor at the University,
has been named the Helena
Rubinstein Professor of Chemistry.
The Helena Rubinstein Foundation created
a $2 million endowed professorship in
support of the advancement of women in
science at Columbia, and Cornish was announced
as the inaugural appointee of this
chair on June 5 at the Northwest Corner
Building, the site of her laboratory. Working
at the interface of chemistry and biology,
Cornish’s lab brings together organic chemistry
and DNA technology to expand the
synthetic capabilities of living cells.
Trustees Chair Emerita G.G. Michelson
’47L, longtime chair of the Helena Rubinstein
Foundation, and Diane Moss, president
of the foundation, were instrumental
in working with Columbia to identify an
appropriate and enduring recognition of
Rubinstein’s legacy. Rubinstein often said
that her “fortune comes from women and
should be used to benefit them and their
children, to better their quality of life”
and “to encourage women to undertake
higher education and to pursue nontraditional
careers.”
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C O L U M B I A C O L L E G E
ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND
Make plans now to return to New
York City and the Columbia campus
for Alumni Reunion Weekend 2013.
The weekend will feature:
Class-specific activities, cocktail receptions and dinners
planned by each class’s Reunion Committee;
“Back on Campus” sessions featuring Mini-Core Courses,
Public Intellectual Lectures and more as part of Dean’s
Day on Saturday;
New York City entertainment options including an art
gallery crawl, Broadway shows and other cultural activities;
All-class programs including the Wine Tasting and the
Starlight Reception, with dancing, champagne and sweets
on Low Plaza; and
Camp Columbia for Kids, ages 3–12.
Virginia W. Cornish ’91 is joined at the announcement by her colleague and mentor, University
Professor Ronald Breslow (left), and Joseph Dougherty ’95 GSAS, who also worked
in Breslow’s lab.
PHOTO: SUSAN COOK
In an effort to reduce costs and be environmentally friendly,
Columbia College Alumni Affairs and your class’s Reunion
Committee will communicate with you via email as much
as possible. Be sure you don’t miss out on reunion details!
Update your contact information at reunion.college.
columbia.edu/alumniupdate.
Watch your mail and email for details.
Questions? Please contact
Fatima Yudeh, alumni affairs:
fy2165@columbia.edu
or 212-851-7834.
COLLEGE
COLLEGE
COLUMBIA ALUMNI REUNION
WEEKEND
SAVE THE DATE THURSDAY, MAY 30–- SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2013