Screening & Panel: After Michael

“After Michael” is an episode of documentary Swing State Florida, which dives into three Florida communities that could be critical for the outcome of the 2020 US election. “After Michael” was shot in the Florida panhandle in the months following Hurricane Michael. The screening will be followed by an expert panel: Sam George (Film director, Bertelsmann Foundation), Dominic Andrews (incoming Public Affairs Officer for NOAA and UNC TransAtlantic Masters Class of 2020), and Dominic Nyhuis (DAAD Visiting Professor, UNC Department of Political Science). The panel will be moderated by Chloe Gruesbeck (UNC TransAtlantic Masters Class of 2022).

As the film highlights the role of climate change in politics, the panel will discuss responses to climate change in Europe and the US, among other topics related to the film. “After Michael” was supported by the Bertelsmann Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit think tank in Washington, DC dedicated to a strong and lasting transatlantic relationship. It is the U.S. branch of the Germany-based Bertelsmann Stiftung.

Please RSVP for this virtual event.

Film Synopsis

Welcome to rural America: dirt roads, endless sunsets, and flags for college football teams. It’s also, by the residents’ telling, the forgotten America, where public services are spotty and where one can drive for hours between hospitals.

Yet the Florida panhandle can have a forceful political impact. “My district picks statewide winners, including the President,” says US Congressman Neal Dunn in the film. When the panhandle comes out to vote, Republicans win Florida. So how will the area mobilize for the 2020 election?

Speakers

Dominic Andrews

Dominic Andrews is originally from Concord, North Carolina. He earned his BA degree from UNC-CH with degrees in Journalism and Political Science and a minor in Environmental Science. During his undergraduate studies he became interested in environmental governance and how the United States stacks up against the rest of the world. This interest led him to TAM, where he spent most of his second year completing a master’s degree with a concentration in International Relations at VU Amsterdam. His research interests center around the role public opinion plays in shaping environmental policy and additional safeguarding against climate change. He will soon start work with NOAA in DC.

Sam George

Samuel George uses a multi-media approach to investigate critical issues in global economics, with a special focus on emerging markets. His signature video series, The Crossroads, combines expert interviews, graphics, and on-the-ground conversations and analysis to bring viewers inside cutting-edge moments in the global political economy. He also produces animated videos and interviews that highlight key findings in Bertelsmann Foundation and Bertelsmann Stiftung studies. Samuel initially joined the Bertelsmann Foundation in 2012 as a Latin America specialist working with the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Global Economic Dynamics project. Highlights of this work include the introduction of the “Pacific Pumas” concept, which relates to the advancements and opportunities of key countries in Latin America, as well investigations into Brazil’s economic malaise, Argentina’s debt crisis and Caribbean growth strategies. His studies on international economics have been cited in the Financial Times, the Economist and the Washington Post, and he continues to work closely with the Global Economic Dynamics project. Samuel is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and holds a master’s degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington.

Chloe Gruesbeck

Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Chloe is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill where she obtained Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Contemporary European Studies. During her time at UNC, she developed an avid interest in European immigrant integration and migration law. This summer Chloe began studying the Arabic language through a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship which she will continue into the TAM program. Chloe looks forward to delving further into her research interests during her second year of TAM at Humboldt University.

Dominic Nyhuis

Dominic Nyhuis is Visiting DAAD Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Nyhuis received his PhD from the University of Mannheim for a project on the link between district preferences and candidate communication in German elections. His research on European and German politics focuses on party politics, legislatures, and subnational politics. With a background in quantitative methods, he is particularly interested in how the digital transformation changes research practices in the social sciences. To this end, he has worked on the automated collection of large-scale web data, as well as tools for the analysis of text and video data. Professor Nyhuis currently teaches undergraduate European Studies and Political Science majors as well as students in the TransAtlantic Masters Program.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the UNC TransAtlantic Masters Program.